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Stories of Invention 



TOLD BY INVENTORS AND 
THEIR FRIENDS. 



By EDWARD E. HALE. 




BOSTON: 

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 

1904. 






Copyright, 1885, 
By Roberts Brothers. 



tHmbcrBtto 53rf8s: 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



PREFACE. 



This little book closes a series of five volumes which I 
undertook some years since, in the wish to teach boys 
and girls how to use for' themselves the treasures which 
they have close at hand in the Public Libraries now so 
generally opened in the Northern States of America. The 
librarians of these institutions are, without an exception, 
so far as I know, eager to introduce to the young the 
books at their command. From these gentlemen and 
ladies I have received many suggestions as the series went 
forward, and I could name many of them who could have 
edited or prepared such a series far more completely 
than I have done. But it is not fair to expect them, in 
the rush of daily duty, to stop and tell boys or girls what 
will be " nice books " for them to read. If they issue 
frequent bulletins of information in this direction, as is 
done so admirably by the librarians at Providence and at 
Hartford, they do more than any one has a right to ask 
them for. Such bulletins must be confined principally to 
helping young people read about the current events of the 
day. In that case it will only be indirectly that they send 
the young readers back into older literature, and make 
them acquainted with the best work of earlier times. 



iv PREFACE. 

I remember well a legend of the old Public Library at 
Dorchester, which describes the messages sent to the hard- 
pressed librarian from the outlying parts of the town on 
the afternoon of Saturday, which was the only time when 
the Library was open. 

" Mother wants a sermon book and another book." 
This was the call almost regularly made by the mes- 
sengers. 

I think that many of the most accomplished librarians 
of to-day have demands not very dissimilar, and that they 
will be glad of any assistance that will give to either 
mother or messenger any hint as to what this " other 
book" shall be. 

It is indeed, of course, almost the first thing to be 
asked that boys and girls shall learn to find out for them- 
selves what they want, and to rummage in catalogues, 
indexes, and encyclopaedias for the books which will best 
answer their necessities. Mr. Emerson's rule is, " Read in 
the line of your genius." And the young man or maiden 
who can find out, in early life, what the line of his or her 
genius is, has every reason to be grateful to the teacher, or 
the event, or the book that has discovered it. I have 
certainly hoped, in reading and writing for this series, that 
there might be others of my young friends as sensible and 
as bright as Fergus and Fanchon, who will be found to 
work out their own salvation in these matters, and order 
their own books without troubling too much that nice 
Miss Panizzi or that omniscient Mrs. Bodley who manages 
the Library so well, and knows so well what every one in 
the town has read, and what he has not read. 



PREFACE. V 

I had at first proposed to publish with each book a 
little bibliography on the subjects referred to, telling par- 
ticularly where were the available editions and the prices 
at which they could be bought by young collectors. But 
a little experiment showed that no such supplement could 
be made, which should be of real use for most readers for 
whom these books are made. The same list might be 
too full for those who have only small libraries at com- 
mand, and too brief for those who are fortunate enough 
to use large ones. Indeed, I should like to say to such 
young readers of mine as have the pluck and the sense to 
read a preface, that the sooner they find out how to use 
the received guides in such matters, — the very indexes 
and bibliographies which I should use in making such a 
list for them, — why, the better will it be for them. 

Such books as Poole's Index, Watt's and Brunet's 
Bibliographies, and the New American Indexes, prepared 
with such care by the Librarians' Association, are at hand 
in almost all the Public Libraries ; and the librarians will 
always be glad to encourage intelligent readers in the use 
of them. 

I should be sorry, in closing the series, not to bear my 
testimony to the value of the Public Library system, still 
so new to us, in raising the standard of thought and edu- 
cation. For thirty years I have had more or less to do 
with classes of intelligent young people who have met for 
study. I can say, therefore, that the habit of thought 
and the habit of work of such young people now is differ- 
ent from what it was thirty years ago. Of course it ought 
to be. You can say to a young learner now, " This book 



VI PREFACE. 

says thus and so, but you must learn for yourself whether 
this author is prejudiced or ill-informed, or not." 

You can send him to the proper authorities. On al- 
most any detail in general history, if he live near one of 
the metropolitan libraries, you can say to him, " If you 
choose to study a fortnight on this thing, you will very 
likely know more about it than does any person in the 
world." It is encouraging to young people to know that 
they can thus take literature and history at first hand. It 
pleases them to know that " the book " is not absolute. 
With such resources that has resulted which such far-seeing 
men as Edward Everett and George Ticknor and Charles 
Coffin Jewett hoped for, — the growth, namely, of a race 
of students who do not take anything on trust. As Pro- 
fessor Agassiz was forever driving up his pupils to habits of 
original observation in natural history, the Public Library 
provokes and allures young students to like courage in 
original research in matters of history and literature. 

EDWARD E. HALE. 
Roxbury, April i, 1885. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

I. Introduction 9 

II. Archimedes 20 

III. Friar Bacon 36 

Of the Parents and Birth of Fryer Bacon, and 
how he addicted himself to Learning, 39. How 
Fryer Bacon made a Brazen Head to speak, by 
the which he would have walled England about 
with Brass, 41. How Fryer Bacon by his Art 
took a Town, when the King had lain before it 
three Months, without doing it any Hurt, 45. 
How Fryer Bacon burnt his Books of Magic 
and gave himself to the Study of Divinity 
only ; and how he turned Anchorite, 49. How 
Virgilius was set to School, 53. Howe the 
Emperor asked Counsel of Virgilius, how the 
Night Runners and 111 Doers might be rid-out 
of the Streets, 55. How Virgilius made a 
Lamp that at all Times burned, 56. 

IV. Benvenuto Cellini 58 

Life of Benvenuto Cellini, 59. Benvenuto's 
Autobiography, 60. 

V. Bernard Palissy ......... 82 

Bernard Palissy the Potter, 83. 



Vlii CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

VI. Benjamin Franklin 97 

Franklin's Method of Growing Better, 100. 
Musical Glasses, 112. 

VII. Theorists of the Eighteenth Century . 119 
Richard Lovell Edgeworth, 119. Edgeworth's 
Telegraph, 124. Mr. Edgeworth's Telegraph 
in Ireland, 127. Mr. Edgeworth's Machine, 
136. More of Mr. Edgeworth's Fancies, 140. 
Jack the Darter, 142. A One-wheeled Chaise, 
144. 

VIII. James Watt 146 

The Newcomen Engine, 150. James Watt and 
the Steam-engine, 153. The Separate Con- 
denser, 161. Completing the Invention, 164. 
Watt makes his Model, 167. 

IX. Robert Fulton 172 

X. George Stephenson and the Locomotive 193 
George Stephenson, 194. 

XI. Eli Whitney 219 

Eli Whitney, 222. 

XII. James Nasmyth 237 

The Steam-hammer, 237. James Nasmyth, 239. 

XIII. Sir Henry Bessemer 259 

The Age of Steel, 259. Bessemer's Family, 261. 
Henry Bessemer, 264. Stamped Paper, 265. 
Gold Paint, 270. Bessemer Steel, 273. 

XIV. The Last Meeting 284 

Goodyear, 284. 



STORIES OF INVENTION 

TOLD BY INVENTORS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

'T^HERE is, or is supposed to be, somewhere in Nor- 
■*■ folk County in Massachusetts, in the neighborhood 
of the city of Boston, a rambling old house which in its 
day belonged to the Oliver family. I am afraid they 
were most of them sad Tories in their time ; and I am not 
sure but these very windows could tell the story of one or 
another brick-bat thrown through them, as one or another 
committee of the people requested one or another Oliver, 
of the old times, to resign one or another royal commis- 
sion. But a very peaceful Rowland has taken the place 
of those rebellious old Olivers. 

This comfortable o]d house is now known to many 
young people as the home of a somewhat garrulous old 
gentjeman whom they call Uncle Fritz. His real name 
is Frederick Ingham. He has had a checkered life, 
but it has evidently been a happy one. Once he was in 
the regular United States Navy. For a long time he was 
a preacher in the Sandemanian connection, where they 
have no ordained ministers. In Garibaldi's time he was a 



io stories of invention: 

colonel in the patriot service in Italy. In our civil war 
he held a command in the national volunteer navy ; 
and his scientific skill and passion for adventure called 
him at one time across "the Great American Desert," 
and at another time across Siberia, in the business of con- 
structing telegraphs. In point of fact, he is not the rela- 
tion of any one of the five-and-twenty young people who 
call him Uncle Fritz. But he pets them, and they pet 
him. They like to make him a regular visit once a week, 
as the winter goes by. And the habit has grown up, of 
their reading with him, quite regularly, on some subject 
selected at their first meeting after they return from the 
country. Either at Lady Oliver's house, as his winter 
home is called, or at Little Crastis, where he spends his 
summers, those selections for reading have been made, 
which have been published in a form similar to that of the 
book which the reader holds in his hand. 

The reader may or may not have seen these books, — 
so much the worse for him if he have not, — but that omis- 
sion of his may be easily repaired. There are four of 
them : Stories of War told by Soldiers ; Stories of hie 
Sea told by Sailors ; Stories of Adventure told by Ad- 
venturers ; Stories of Discovery told by Discoverers. 

Since the regular meetings began, of which these books 
are the history, the circle of visitors has changed more or 
less, as most circles will, in five years. Some of those 
who met are now in another world. Some of the boys 
have grown to be so much like men, that they are " sub- 
duing the world," as Uncle Fritz would say, in their several 
places, and that they write home, from other latitudes and 
longitudes, of the Discoveries and Adventures in which 
they have themselves been leaders. But younger sisters 
and brothers take the places of older brothers and sisters. 



INTR OD UC TION. 1 1 

The club — for it really is one — is popular, Lady Oliver's 
house is large, and Uncle Fritz is hospitable. He says 
himself that there is always room for more ; and Ellen 
Flaherty, or whoever else is the reigning queen in the 
kitchen, never complains that the demand is too great for 
her "waffles." 

Last fall, when the young people made their first ap- 
pearance, the week before Thanksgiving day, after the 
new-comers had been presented to Uncle Fritz, and a 
chair or two had been brought in from the dining-room 
to make provision for the extra number of guests, it 
proved that, on the way out, John Coram, who is Tom 
Coram 's nephew, had been talking with Helen, who is one 
of the old Boston Champernoons, about the change of 
Boston since his uncle's early days. 

" I told her," said he to Uncle Fritz, " that Mr. Aller- 
ton was called 'the last of the merchants,' and he is dead 
now." 

"That was a pet phrase of his," said Uncle Fritz. 
" He meant that his house, with its immense resources, 
simply bought and sold. He was away for many years 
once. When he returned, he found that the chief of his 
affairs had made an investment, from motives of public 
spirit, in a Western railroad. * I thought we were mer- 
chants,' said the fine old man, disapproving. As he 
turned over page after page of the account, he found at 
last that the whole investment had been lost. ' I am 
glad of that,' said he ; ' you will remember now that we 
are merchants.' " 

" But surely my father is a merchant," said Julius. 
" He calls himself a merchant, he is put down as a 
merchant in the Directory, and he buys and sells, if 
that makes a man a merchant." 



12 STORIES OF INVENTION-. 

" All that is true," said Uncle Fritz. " But your father 
also invests money in railroads ; so far he is engaged in 
transportation. He is a stockholder and a director in 
the Hecla Woollen Mills at Bromwich ; so far he is a 
manufacturer. He told me, the other day, that he had 
been encouraging my little friend Griffiths, who is experi- 
menting in the conservation of electric power ; so far he 
is an inventor, or a patron of inventions. 

" In substance, what Mr. Allerton meant when he said 
' I thought we were merchants,' was this : he meant that 
that firm simply bought from people who wished to sell, 
and sold to people who wished to buy. 

" The fact, that almost every man of enterprise in Mas- 
sachusetts is now to a certain extent a manufacturer, 
shows that a great change has come over people here 
since the beginning of this century." 

" Those were the days of Mr. Cleveland's adventures, 
and Mr. Forbes's," said Hugh. 

He alluded to the trade in the Pacific, in which these 
gentlemen shared, as may be read in Stories of Ad- 
venture. 

Uncle Fritz said, "Yes." He said that the patient love 
of Great Britain for her colonies forbade us here from mak- 
ing so much as a hat or a hob-nail while we were colonies, 
as it would gladly do again now. He said that the New 
Englanders had a great deal of adventurous old Norse 
blood in their veins, that they had plenty of ship-timber 
and tar. If they could not make hob-nails they could 
make ships ; and they made very good ships before they 
had been in New England ten years. 

Luckily for us, soon after the country became a country, 
near a hundred years ago, the quarrels of Europe were 
such, that if an English ship carried produce of the West 



INTR OD UC TION. 1 3 

Indies or China to Europe, France seized, if she could, 
ship and cargo ; if a French ship carried them, English 
cruisers seized ship and cargo, if they could. So it hap- 
pened that the American ships and the American sailors, 
who were not at war with England and were not at war 
with France, were able to carry the stores which were 
wanted by all the world. The wars of Napoleon were 
thus a steady bounty for the benefit of the commerce of 
America. When they were well over, we had become so 
well trained to commerce here, that we could build the 
best ships in the world ; and we thought we had the best 
seamen in the world, — certainly there were no better. 
Under such a stimulus, and what followed it, our com- 
merce, as measured by the tonnage of our ships, was as 
large as that of any nation, and, if measured by the miles 
sailed, was probably larger. 

All this prosperity to merchants was broken up by the 
War of 181 2, between the United States and Great Britain. 
For two years and a half, then, our intercourse with 
Europe was almost cut off; for the English cruisers now 
captured our vessels whenever they could find them. At 
last we had to make our own hob-nails, our guns, our can- 
non, our cotton cloth, and our woollen cloth, if we meant 
to have any at all. The farmers' wives and daughters had 
always had the traditions of spinning and weaving. 

When Colonel Ingham said this, Blanche nodded to 
Mary and Mary to Blanche. 

" That means," said the Colonel, " that you have brought 
dear old mother Tucker's spinning-wheel downstairs, and 
have it in the corner behind your piano, does it not? " 

Blanche laughed, and said that was just what she meant. 

"It does very well in 'Martha,'" said the Colonel. 
"And can you spin, Blanche?" 



14 STORIES OF INVENTION". 

Blanche rather surprised him by saying that she could, 
and the Colonel went on with his lecture. Fergus, who 
is very proud of Blanche, slipped out of the room, but 
was back after a minute, and no one missed him. 

Here in Massachusetts some of the most skilful mer- 
chants — Appletons, Perkinses, and Lawrences — joined 
hand with brave inventors like Slater and Tread well, and 
sent out to England for skilful manufacturers like Cromp- 
ton and Boott ; thus there sprung up the gigantic system 
of manufacture, which seems to you children a thing of 
course. Oddly enough, the Southern States, which had 
always hated New England and New England commerce, 
and had done their best to destroy it when they had a 
chance, were very eager to secure a home-market for 
Southern cotton ; and thus, for many years after the war, 
they kept up such high protective duties that foreign goods 
were very dear in America, and the New England manu- 
facturers had all the better prices. 

While Uncle Fritz was saying this in substance, Ran- 
som, the old servant, appeared with a spinning-wheel from 
Colonel Ingham's music-room. The children had had it 
for some charades. Kate Fogarty, the seamstress of the 
Colonel's household, followed, laughing, with a great hank 
of flax ; and when the Colonel stopped at the interruption, 
Fergus said, — 

" I thought, Uncle Fritz, they would all like to see how 
well Blanche spins ; so I asked Ransom to bring in the 
wheel." 

And Blanche sat down without any coaxing, and made 
her wheel fly very prettily, and spun her linen thread as 
well as her great-grandmamma would have done. Colonel 
Ingham was delighted ; and so were all the children, half 
of whom had never seen any hand-spinning before. All of 



INTRO D UC TIO AT. I 5 

them had seen cotton and wool spun in factories ; in fact, 
half of them had eaten their daily bread that day, from the 
profit of the factories that for ten hours of every day do 
such spinning. 

" Now, you see," said the well-pleased Colonel, 
"Blanche spins that flax exactly as her grandmother 
nine generations back spun it. She spins it exactly as 
Mrs. Dudley spun it in the old house where Dr. Pater- 
sori's church stands. It is strange enough, but for one 
hundred and fifty years there seems to have been no 
passion for invention among the New Englanders. Now 
they are called a most inventive people, and that bad 
word has been coined for them and such as they. 

" But all this is of the last century. It was as soon as 
they were thrown on their own resources that they began 
to invent. Eli Whitney, a Worcester County boy, gradu- 
ated at Yale College in 1791. He went to Georgia at 
once, to be a tutor in a planter's family ; but before he 
arrived, the planter had another tutor. This was a for- 
tunate chance for the world ; for poor Whitney, disap- 
pointed, went to spend the winter at the house of Mrs. 
General Greene. One day, at dinner, some guests of hers 
said that cotton could never be exported with profit 
unless a machine could be made to separate the seeds 
from the ' wool.' ' If you want anything invented,' said 
Mrs. Greene, ' ask my young friend Mr. Whitney ; he 
will invent anything for you.' Whitney had then never 
seen cotton unmanufactured. But he went to work ; and 
before he was one year out of college, he had invented 
the cotton-gin, which created an enormous product of 
cotton, and, in fact, changed the direction of the com- 
merce of the world. 

" Well, you know about other inventions. Robert 



1 6 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

Fulton, who built the first effective steamboat, was 
born in Pennsylvania the same year Whitney was born 
in Massachusetts. 

" Hector, you are fond of imaginary conversations : 
write one in which Whitney and Fulton meet, when each 
is twenty-one ; let Daniel Boone look in on them, and 
prophesy to them the future of the country, and how 
much it is to owe to them and to theirs." 

"I think Blanche had better write it — in a ballad," said 
Hector, laughing. " It shall be an old crone spinning ; 
and as she turns her wheel she shall describe the ^tna 
Factory at Watertown." 

" There shall be a refrain''' said Wallace, — 

" ' Turn my wheel gayly ; 
Spin, flax, spin.' " 

" No," said Hatty ; " the refrain shall be 

1 Four per cent in six months, 
Eight per cent in twelve.' 

We are to go to Europe if the Vesuvius Mills pay a 
dividend. But if they pass, I believe I am to scrub 
floors in my vacation." 

" Very well," said Uncle Fritz, recalling them to the 
subject they had started on. " All this is enough to show 
you how it is that you, who are all New Englanders, are 
no longer seafaring boys or girls, exclusively or even 
principally. Your great-grandmother, Alice, saved the 
lives of all the crew of a Bristol trader, by going out in 
her father's boat and taking her through the crooked 
passage between the Brewsters. You would be glad to 
do it, but I am afraid you cannot." 

" I should rather encourage those who go to do it," 
said Alice, demurely, repeating one of their familiar jokes. 



INTR OB UC TION. 1 7 

" And your great-grandfather, Seth, is the Hunt who 
discovered Hunt's Reef in the Philippines. I am afraid 
you cannot place it on the map." 

" I know I cannot," said Seth, bravely. 

" No," said the old gentleman. " But all the same the 
reef is there. I came to an anchor in the ' Calypso,' wait- 
ing for a southwest wind, in sight of the breakers over it. 
And I wish we had the pineapples the black people sold 
us there. 

" All the same the New Englanders are good for some- 
thing. Ten years hence, you boys will be doing what your 
fathers are doing, — subduing the world, and making it 
to be more what God wants it to be. And you will not 
work at arms' length, as they did, nor with your own 
muscles." 

" We have Aladdin's lamp," said Mary, laughing. 

"And his ring," said Susie. "I always liked the ring 
one better than the lamp one, though he was not so 
strong." 

" He is prettier in the pictures," said George. 

"Yes," said the Colonel; "we have stronger Genii than 
Aladdin had, and better machinery than Prince Cama- 
ralzaman." 

"I heard some one say that Mr. Corliss had added 
twenty- seven per cent to the working power of the world 
by his cut-off.''' said Fergus. 

The Colonel said he believed that was true. And this 
was a good illustration of what one persevering and intel- 
ligent man can do in bringing in the larger life and 
nobler purpose of the Kingdom of Heaven. Such a 
man makes men cease from labor, which is always irk- 
some, and work with God. This is always ennobling. 

"I am ashamed to say that I do not know what a 



1 8 STORIES of invention: 

cut-off is," said Alice, who, like Seth, had been trained to 
"confess ignorance." 

" I was going to say so," said John Rodman. 

" And I, — and I, — and I," said quite a little chorus. 

"We must make up a party, the first pleasant day, 
and go and see the stationary engine which pumps this 
water for us." So the Colonel met their confessions. 
" But does not all this indicate that we might spend a few 
days in looking up inventions ? " 

" I think we ought to," said Hatty. " Certainly we 
ought, if the Vesuvius pays. Imagine me at Manchester. 
Imagine John Bright taking me through his own mill, and 
saying to me, ' This is the rover we like best, on the whole. 
Do you use this in America?' Imagine me forced to 
reply that I do not know a rover when I see one, and 
could not tell a 'slubber' from a 'picker.' " 

The others laughed, and confessed equal ignorance. 
" Only, John Bright has no mills in Manchester, Hatty." 

" Well, they are somewhere ; and I must not eat the 
bread of the Vesuvius slubbers, and not know something 
of the way in which slubbers came to be." 

" Very well," said Uncle Fritz, as usual recalling the con- 
versation to sanity. " Whom shall we read about first ? " 

"Tubal Cain first," said Fergus. "He seems to have 
been the first of the crew." 

" It was not he who found out witty inventions," said 
Fanchon, in a mock aside. 

" I should begin with Archimedes," said Uncle Fritz. 

" Excellent ! " said Fergus ; " and then may we not burn 
up old Fogarty's barn with burning-glasses?" 

The children dislike Fogarty, and his barn is an eye- 
sore to them. It stands just beyond the hedge of the 
Lady Oliver garden. 



INTRODUCTION. 1 9 

" I thank Archimedes every time I take a warm bath. 
Did he not invent hot baths? " 

" What nonsense ! He was killed by Caligula in one." 

" You shall not talk such stuff. — Uncle Fritz, what 
books shall I bring you?'* 

It would seem as if, perhaps, Uncle Fritz had led the 
conversation in the direction it had taken. At least it 
proved that, all together on the rolling book-rack which 
Mr. Perkins gave him, were the account of Archimedes in 
the Cyclopaedia Britannica, the account in the French 
Universal Biography, the life in La Rousse's Cyclopaedia, 
Plutarch's Lives, and a volume of Livy in the Latin. 
From these together, Uncle Fritz, and the boys and girls 
whom he selected, made out this little history of 
Archimedes. 



II. 

ARCHIMEDES. 

A RCHIMEDES was born in Syracuse in the year 
287 B.C., and was killed there in the year 212 b. c. 
He is said to have been a relation of Hiero, King of 
Syracuse ; but he seems to have held no formal office 
known to the politicians. Like many other such men, 
however, from his time down to Ericsson, he came to the 
front when he was needed, and served Syracuse better 
than her speech-makers. While he was yet a young man, 
he went to Alexandria to study ; and he was there the 
pupil of Euclid, the same Euclid whose Geometry is the 
basis of all the geometry of to-day. 

While Archimedes is distinctly called, on very high 
authority, "the first mathematician of antiquity," and 
while we have nine books which are attributed to him, 
we do not have — and this is a great misfortune — any 
ancient biography of him. He lived seventy-five years, 
for most of that time probably in Syracuse itself; and it 
would be hard to say how much Syracuse owed to his 
science. At the end of his life he saved Syracuse from 
the Romans for three years, during a siege in which, by 
his ingenuity, he kept back Marcellus and his army. At 
the end of this siege he was killed by a Roman soldier 
when the Romans entered the city. 

The books of his which we have are on the " Sphere 
and Cylinder," " The Measure of the Circle," " Conoids 



ARCHIMEDES. 21 

and Spheroids," "On Spirals," "Equiponderants and Cen- 
tres of Gravity," "The Quadrature of the Parabola," "On 
Bodies floating in Liquids," " The Psammites," and " A 
Collection of Lemmas." The books which are lost are 
" On the Crown of Hiero ; " " Cochleon, or Water- 
Screw; " " Helicon, or Endless Screw; " "Trispaston, or 
Combination of Wheels and Axles ; " " Machines em- 
ployed at the Siege of Syracuse;" "Burning Mirror;" 
"Machines moved by Air and Water;" and "Material 
Sphere." 

As to the story of the bath-tub, Uncle Fritz gave to 
Hector to read the account as abridged in the " Cyclopae- 
dia Britannica." 

" Hiero had set him to discover whether or not the gold 
which he had given to an artist to work into a crown for 
him had been mixed with a baser metal. Archimedes was 
puzzled by the problem, till one day, as he was stepping 
into a bath, and observed the water running over, it oc- 
curred to him that the excess of bulk occasioned by the 
introduction of alloy could be measured by putting the 
crown and an equal weight of gold separately into a vessel 
filled with water, and observing the difference of overflow. 
He was so overjoyed when this happy thought struck him 
that he ran home without his clothes, shouting, ' I have 
found it, I have found it,' — EvfjrjKa, EvprjKa. 

" This word has been chosen by the State of California 
for its motto." 

To make the story out, it must be supposed that the 
crown was irregular in shape, and that the precise ob- 
ject was to find how much metal, in measurement, was 
used in its manufacture. Suppose three cubic inches of 
gold were used, Archimedes knew how much this would 
cost. But if three cubic inches of alloy were used, the 



22 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

king had been cheated. What the overflow of the water 
taught was the precise cubic size of the various ornaments 
of the crown. A silver crown or a lead crown would dis- 
place as much water as a gold crown of the same shape 
and ornament. But neither silver nor lead would weigh 
so much as if pure gold were used, and at that time 
pure gold was by far the heaviest metal known. 

Fergus, who is perhaps our best mathematician, pricked 
up his ears when he heard there was a treatise on the 
relation of the Circle to the Square. Like most of the 
intelligent boys who will read this book, Fergus had tried 
his hand on the fascinating problem which deals with that 
proportion. Younger readers will remember that it is 
treated in " Swiss Family." Jack — or is it perhaps Er- 
nest ? — remembers there, that for the ribbon which was 
to go round a hat the hat-maker allowed three times the 
diameter of the hat, and a little more. This "little more " 
is the delicate fraction over which Archimedes studied ; 
and Fergus, after him. Fergus knew the proportion as 
far as thirty-three figures in decimals. These are 3. 141, 
592,653,589,793,238,462,643,383,279,502. When Uncle 
Fritz asked Fergus to repeat these, the boy did it promptly, 
somewhat to the astonishment of the others. He had 
committed it to memory by one of Mr. Gouraud's u anal- 
ogies," which are always convenient for persons who have 
mathematical formulas to remember. 

When those of the young people who were interested in 
mathematics looked at Archimedes's solution of the prob- 
lem, they found it was the same as that they had themselves 
tried at school. But he carried it so far as to inscribe a 
circle between two polygons, each of ninety-six sides ; and 
his calculation is based on the relation between the two. 

Taking the "Swiss Family Robinson" statement again, 



SQUARING THE CIRCLE* 23 

Archimedes shows that the circumference of a circle ex- 
ceeds three times its diameter by a small fraction, which 
is less than \% and greater than \\, and that a circle is to 
its circumscribing square nearly as 11 to 14. Those who 
wish to carry his calculations farther may be pleased to 
know that he found the figures 7 to 22 expressed the re- 
lation more correctly than 1 to 3 does. Metius, another 
ancient mathematician, used the proportion 113 to 355. 
If you reduce that to decimals, you will find it correct to 
the sixth decimal. Remember that Archimedes and Me- 
tius had not the convenience of the Arabic or decimal no- 
tation. Imagine yourselves doing Metius's sum in division 
when you have to divide CCCLV by CXIII. Archimedes, 
in fact, used the Greek notation, — which was a little better 
than the Roman, but had none of the facility of ours. 
For every ten, from 20 to 90, they had a separate charac* 
ter, and for every hundred, and for every thousand. The 
thousands were the units with a mark underneath. Thus 
a meant 1, and a meant 1,000. To express 113, Archi- 
medes would have written piy. To express 355, he would 
have written rve ; and the place which these signs had in 
the order would not have affected their value, as they do 
with us. 

We cannot tell how the greater part of Archimedes's 
life was spent. But whether he were nominally in public 
office or not, it is clear enough that he must have given 
great help to Syracuse and her rulers, as an engineer, long 
before the war in which the Romans captured that great 
city. At that time Syracuse was, according to Cicero, 
"the largest and noblest of the Greek cities." It was in 
Sicily ; but, having been built by colonists from Greece, 
who still spoke the Greek language, Cicero speaks of it 
among Greek cities, as he would have spoken of Thurii, 



24 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

or Sybaris, or the cities of " Magna Grgecia," — " great 
Greece," as they called the Greek settlements in south- 
ern Italy. In the Second Punic War Syracuse took sides 
against Rome with the Carthaginians, though her old 
king, Hiero, had been a firm ally of the Romans. The 
most interesting accounts that we have of Archimedes are 
in Livy's account of this war, and in Plutarch's Life of 
Marcellus, who carried it on on the Roman side. Livy 
says of Archimedes that he was — 

" A man of unrivalled skill in observing the heavens and 
the stars, but more deserving of admiration as the inventor 
and constructor of warlike engines and works, by means of 
which, with a very slight effort, he turned to ridicule what 
the enemy effected with great difficulty. 

" The wall, which ran along unequal eminences, most of 
which were high and difficult of access, some low and open 
to approach along level vales, was furnished by him with 
every kind of warlike engine, as seemed suitable to each 
particular place. Marcellus attacked from the quinque- 
remes [his large ships] the wall of the Achradina, which 
was washed by the sea. From the other ships the archers 
and slingers and light infantry, whose weapon is difficult to 
be thrown back by the unskilful, allowed scarce any person 
to remain upon the wall unwounded. These soldiers, as 
they required some range in aiming their missiles upward, 
kept their ships at a distance from the wall. Eight more 
quinqueremes joined together in pairs, the oars on their 
inner sides being removed, so that side might be placed 
to side, and which thus formed ships [of double width], 
and were worked by the outer oars, carried turrets built 
up in stories, and other battering-engines. 

" Against this naval armament Archimedes placed, on 
different parts of the walls, engines of various dimensions. 



SIEGE OF SYRACUSE. 2$ 

Against the ships which were at a distance he discharged 
stones of immense weight ; those which were nearer he 
assailed with lighter and more numerous missiles. Lastly, 
in order that his own men might heap their weapons upon 
the enemy without receiving any wounds themselves, he 
perforated the wall from the top to the bottom with a 
great number of loop-holes, about a cubit in diameter, 
through which some with arrows, others with scorpions of 
moderate size, assailed the enemies without being seen. 
He threw upon their sterns some of the ships which came 
nearer to the walls, in order to get inside the range of 
the engines, raising up their prows by means of an iron 
grapple attached to a strong chain, by means of a tolleno 
[or derrick], which projected from the wall and overhung 
them, having a heavy counterpoise of lead which forced 
the line to the ground. Then, the grapple being suddenly 
disengaged, the ship, falling from the wall, was by these 
means, to the utter consternation of the seamen, so dashed 
against the water that even if it came back to its true 
position it took in a great quantity of water." 

"Fancy," cried Bedford, "one of their double quinque- 
remes, when she had run bravely in under the shelter of 
the wall. Just as the men think they can begin to work, 
up goes the prow, and they all are tumbled down into the 
steerage. Up she goes, and fifty rowers are on each other 
in a pile ; when the old pile-driver claw lets go again, and 
down she comes, splash into the sea. And then Archi- 
medes pokes his head out through one of the holes, and 
says in Greek, ' How do you like that, my friends ? ' I do 
not wonder they were discouraged." 

The bold cliff of the water front of Syracuse gave Archi- 
medes a particular advantage for defensive operations of 
this sort. They are described in more detail in Plutarch's 



26 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

Life of Marcellus, who was the Roman general employed 
against Syracuse, and who was held at bay by Archimedes 
for three years. 

Here is Plutarch's account : — 

Marcellus, with sixty galleys, each with five rows of 
oars, furnished with all sorts of arms and missiles, and 
a huge bridge of planks laid upon eight ships chained 
together, 1 upon which was carried the engine to cast 
stones and darts, assaulted the walls. He relied on the 
abundance and magnificence of his preparations, and on 
his own previous glory ; all which, however, were, it would 
seem, but trifles for Archimedes and his machines. 

These machines he had designed and contrived, not 
as matters of any importance, but as mere amusements 
in geometry, — in compliance with King Hiero's desire 
and request, some little time before, that he should re- 
duce to practice some part of his admirable speculations 
in science, and by accommodating the theoretic truth to 
sensation and ordinary use, bring it more within the 
appreciation of people in general. Eudoxus and Archytas 
had been the first originators of this far-famed and highly 
prized art of mechanics, which they employed as an 
elegant illustration of geometrical truths, and as a means 
of sustaining experimentally, to the satisfaction of the 
senses, conclusions too intricate for proof by words and 
diagrams. As, for example, to solve the problem so 
often required in constructing geometrical figures, " Given 
the two extremes to find the two mean lines of a propor- 
tion," both these mathematicians had recourse to the aid 
of instruments, adapting to their purpose certain curves 
and sections of lines. But what with Plato's indignation 

1 These are the quinqueremes, fastened together, of the other account 



MECHANIC ARTS. 2J 

at it, and his invectives against it as the mere corruption 
and annihilation of the one good of geometry, which 
was thus shamefully turning its back upon the unem- 
bodied objects of pure intelligence, to recur to sensation, 
and to ask help (not to be obtained without base sub- 
servience and depravation) from matter; so it was that 
mechanics came to be separated from geometry, and 
when repudiated and neglected by philosophers, took 
its place as a military art. 

Archimedes, however, in writing to King Hiero, whose 
friend and near relative he was, had stated that, given 
the force, any given weight might be moved ; and even 
boasted, we are told, relying on the strength of demon- 
stration, that if there were another earth, by going into 
it he could move this. 

Hiero being struck with amazement at this, and en- 
treating him to make good this assertion by actual experi- 
ment, and show some great weight moved by a small 
engine, he fixed upon a ship of burden out of the king's 
arsenal, which could not be drawn out of the dock with- 
out great labor by many men. Loading her with many 
passengers and a full freight, sitting himself the while far 
off, with no great endeavor, but only holding the head 
of the pulley in his hand and drawing the cord by de- 
grees, he drew the ship in a straight line, as smoothly and 
evenly as if she had been in the sea. 

The king, astonished at this, and convinced of the 
power of the art, prevailed upon Archimedes to make 
him engines accommodated to all the purposes, offensive 
and defensive, of a siege. These the king himself never 
made use of, because he spent almost all his life in a 
profound quiet and the highest affluence. But the appa- 
ratus was, in a most opportune time, ready at hand for 
the Syracusans, and with it also the engineer himself. 



28 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

When, therefore, the Romans assaulted the walls in 
two places at once, fear and consternation stupefied the 
Syracusans, believing that nothing was able to resist that 
violence and those forces. But when Archimedes began 
to ply his engines, he at once shot against the land forces 
all sorts of missile, weapons, with immense masses of 
stone that came down with incredible noise and violence, 
against which no man could stand ; for they knocked 
down those upon whom they fell in heaps, breaking all 
their ranks and files. In the mean time huge poles thrust 
out from the walls over the ships [these were the derricks, 
or tollenos, of Livy] sunk some by the great weights which 
they let down from on high upon them ; others they 
lifted up into the air by an iron hand or beak like a 
crane's beak, and when they had drawn them up by the 
prow, and set them on end upon the poop, they plunged 
them to the bottom of the sea. Or else the ships, drawn 
by engines within, and whirled about, were dashed against 
the steep rocks that stood jutting out under the walls, 
with great destruction of the soldiers that were aboard 
them. A ship was frequently lifted up to a great height 
in the air (a dreadful thing to behold), and was rolled 
to and fro and kept swinging, until the mariners were 
all thrown out, when at length it was dashed against the 
rocks, or let fall. 

At the engine that Marcellus brought upon the bridge 
of ships, — which was called Sambuca from some resem- 
blance it had to an instrument of music of that name, — 
while it was as yet approaching the wall, there was dis- 
charged a piece of a rock of ten talents' weight, 1 then 
a second and a third, which, striking upon it with im- 
mense force and with a noise like thunder, broke all its 

1 The estimates of a talent vary somewhat, but ten taleuU made about 
seven hundred pounds. 



ENGINES OF DEFENCE. 29 

foundation to pieces, shook out all its fastenings, and 
completely dislodged it from the bridge. So Marcellus, 
doubtful what counsel to pursue, drew off his ships to 
a safer distance, and sounded a retreat to his forces on 
land. They then took a resolution of coming up under 
the walls, if it were possible, in the night ; thinking that 
as Archimedes used ropes stretched at length in playing 
his engines, the soldiers would now be under the shot, and 
the darts would, for want of sufficient distance to throw 
them, fly oyer their heads without effect. But he, it 
appeared, had long before framed for such occasion 
engines accommodated to any distance, and shorter 
weapons ; and had made numerous small openings in 
the walls, through which, with engines of a shorter range, 
unexpected blows were inflicted on the assailants. Thus, 
when they, who thought to deceive the defenders, came 
close up to the walls, instantly a shower of darts and 
other missile weapons was again cast upon them. And 
when stones came tumbling down perpendicularly upon 
their heads, and, as it were, the whole wall shot out arrows 
against them, they retired. 

And now, again, as they were going off, arrows and 
darts of a longer range inflicted a great slaughter among 
them, and their ships were driven one against another, 
while they themselves were not able to retaliate in any 
way. For Archimedes had provided and fixed most of 
his engines immediately under the wall; whence the 
Romans, seeing that infinite mischiefs overwhelmed them 
from no visible means, began to think they were fighting 
with the gods. 

Yet Marcellus escaped unhurt, and, deriding his own 
artificers and engineers, " What," said he, " must we give 
up fighting with this geometrical Briareus, who plays 



30 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

pitch and toss with our ships, and with the multitude of 
darts which he showers at a single moment upon us, 
really outdoes the hundred-handed giants of mythology?" 
And doubtless the rest of the Syracusans were but the 
body of Archimedes's designs, one soul moving and 
governing all ; for, laying aside all other arms, with his 
alone they infested the Romans and protected them- 
selves. In fine, when such terror had seized upon the 
Romans that if they did but see a little rope or a piece 
of wood from the wall, instantly crying out that there it 
was again, that Archimedes was about to let fly some en- 
gine at them, they turned their backs and fled, Marcellus 
desisted from conflicts and assaults, putting all his hope 
in a long siege. Yet Archimedes possessed so high a 
spirit, so profound a soul, and such treasures of scien- 
tific knowledge, that though these inventions had now 
obtained him the renown of more than human sagacity, 
he yet would not deign to leave behind him any com- 
mentary or writing on such subjects ; but, repudiating 
as sordid and ignoble the whole trade of engineering, 
and every sort of art that lends itself to mere use and 
profit, he placed his whole affection and ambition in 
those purer speculations where there can be no reference 
to the vulgar needs of life, — studies the superiority of 
which to all others is unquestioned, and in which the 
only doubt can be whether the beauty and grandeur of 
the subjects examined or the precision and cogency 
of the methods and means of proof most deserve our 
admiration. 

It is not possible to find in all geometry more difficult 
and intricate questions, or more simple and lucid expla- 
nations. Some ascribe this to his natural genius ; while 
others think that incredible toil produced these, to all 



ARCHIMEDES 'S LOVE OF SCIENCE. 3 1 

appearance, easy and unlabored results. No amount 
of investigation of yours would succeed in attaining the 
proof; and yet, once seen, you immediately believe you 
would have discovered it, — by so smooth and so rapid 
a path he leads you to the conclusion required. And 
thus it ceases to be incredible that (as is commonly told 
of him) the charm of his familiar and domestic science 
made him forget his food and neglect his person to that 
degree that when he was occasionally carried by absolute 
violence to bathe, or have his body anointed, he used 
to trace geometrical figures in the ashes of the fire, and 
diagrams in the oil on his body, being in a state of entire 
preoccupation, and, in the truest sense, divine possession, 
with his love and delight in science. His discoveries 
were numerous and admirable ; but he is said to have 
requested his friends and relations that when he was 
dead they would place over his tomb a sphere contain- 
ing a cylinder, inscribing it with the ratio which the 
containing solid bears to the contained. 

The boys were highly edified by this statement of the 
difficulty which Archimedes's friends found in making him 
take a bath, and chaffed Jack, who had asked if he were 
not the inventor of bath-tubs. 

When the reading from Plutarch was over, Fergus 
asked if that were all, and was disappointed that there 
was nothing about the setting of ships on fire by mirrors. 
It is one of the old stories of the siege of Syracuse, that 
he set fire to the Roman ships by concentrating on them 
the heat of the sun from a number of mirrors. But this 
story is not in Livy, nor is it in Plutarch, though, as has 
been seen, they were well disposed to tell what they knew 
which was marvellous in his achievements. It is told at 



32 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

length and in detail by Zonaras and Tzetzes, two Greek 
writers of the twelfth century, who must have found it in 
some ancient writers whose works we do not now have. 

" Archimedes," says Zonaras, l " having received the 
rays of the sun on a mirror, by the thickness and polish 
of which they were reflected and united, kindled a flame 
in the air, and darted it with full violence upon the ships, 
which were anchored within a certain distance, in such 
a manner that they were burned to ashes." 

The same writer says that Proclus, a celebrated 
" mathematician " of Constantinople, in the sixth century, 
at the siege of Constantinople set fire to the Thracian 
fleet by means of brass mirrors. Tzetzes is yet more 
particular. He says that when the Roman galleys were 
within a bow-shot of the city walls, Archimedes brought 
together hexagonal specula (mirrors) with other smaller 
ones of twenty-four facets, and caused them to be placed 
each at a proper distance ; that he moved these by means 
of hinges and plates of metal ; that the hexagon was bi- 
sected by the meridian of summer and winter ; that it was 
placed opposite the sun ; and that a great fire was thus 
kindled, which consumed the ships. 

Now, it is to be remembered that these are the 
accounts of writers who were not so good mechanics as 
Archimedes. It should be remembered, also, that in 
the conditions of war then, the distance at which ships 
would be anchored in a little harbor like that of Syracuse 
was not great. By " bow-shot " would be meant the 
distance at which a bow would do serious damage. 
Doubtful as the story of Zonaras and Tzetzes seems, it 
received unexpected confirmation in the year 1 747 from 
a celebrated experiment tried by the naturalist Buflbn. 

1 Quoted in Fabricius's Greek fragments. 



BUFFO WS EXPERIMENTS. 33 

After encountering many difficulties, which he had 
foreseen with great acuteness, and obviated with equal 
ingenuity, Buffon at length succeeded in repeating Ar- 
chimedes's performance. In the spring of 1747 he 
laid before the French Academy a memoir which, in his 
collected works, extends over upwards of eighty pages. 
In this paper he described himself as in possession of an 
apparatus by means of which he could set fire to planks at 
the distance of 200 and even 210 feet, and melt metals 
and metallic minerals at distances varying from 25 to 40 
feet. This apparatus he describes as composed of 168 
plain glasses, silvered on the back, each six inches broad 
by eight inches long. These, he says, were ranged in a 
large wooden frame, at intervals not exceeding the third 
of an inch, so that, by means of an adjustment behind, 
each should be movable in all directions independent of 
the rest ; the spaces between the glasses being further of 
use in allowing the operator to see from behind the point 
on which it behooved the various disks to be converged. 

In this last statement there is a parallel with that of 
Tzetzes, who speaks of the division of Archimedes's 
mirrors. 

At the present moment naturalists are paying great at- 
tention to plans for the using of the heat of the sun. It is 
said that on any county in the United States, twenty by 
thirty miles square, there is wasted as much heat of the 
sun as would drive, if we knew how to use it, all the 
steam-engines in the world. 

Fergus asked Uncle Fritz if he believed that Archime- 
des threw seven hundred pounds of stone from one of his 
machines. The largest modern guns throw shot of one 
thousand pounds, and it is only quite recently that any 
such shot have been used. 



34 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

Uncle Fritz told him that in the museum at St. Ger- 
main-en-Laye he would one day see a modern catapult, 
made by Colonel de Reffye from the design of a Roman 
catapult on Trajan's Column. This is supposed to be of 
the same pattern which is called an " Onager " in the 
Latin books. This catapult throws, when it is tested, a 
shot of twenty-four pounds, or it throws a sheaf of short 
arrows. In one catapult the power is gained by twisting 
ox-hide very tightly, and suddenly releasing it. Another is 
a very stout bow, worked with a small windlass. Of course 
this will give a great power. 

Seven hundred pounds, however, seems beyond the 
ability of any such machines as this ; but from his higher 
walls Archimedes could, of course, have rolled such stones 
down on the decks of the ships below. And if he were 
throwing other stones or leaden balls to a greater distance 
with his Onagers, it may well be that Plutarch or Livy did 
not take very accurate account of the particular engine 
which threw one stone or another. 

Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier, to the 
great grief of Marcellus, when the Romans finally took 
Syracuse. The city fell through drunkenness, which was, 
and is, the cause of more failure in the world than 
anything else which can be named. Marcellus, in some 
conversations about the exchange or redemption of a pris- 
oner, observed a tower somewhat detached from the wall, 
which was, as he thought, carelessly guarded. Choosing 
the night of a feast of Diana, when the Syracusans were 
wholly given up to wine and sport, he took the tower by 
surprise, and from the tower seized the wall and made his 
way into the city. In the sack of the city by the soldiers, 
which followed, Archimedes was killed. The story is 
told in different ways. Plutarch says that he was working 



ARCHIMEDES'S DEA TH. 3 5 

out some problem by a diagram, and never noticed the 
incursion of the Romans, nor that the city was taken. 
A soldier, unexpectedly coming up to him in this trans- 
port of study and meditation, commanded him to follow 
him to Marcellus ; which he declining to do before he had 
worked out his problem to a demonstration, the soldier, 
enraged, drew his sword, and ran him through. " Others 
write that a Roman soldier, running upon him with a drawn 
sword, offered to kill him, and that Archimedes, looking 
back, earnestly besought him to hold his hand a little 
while, that he might not leave what he was then at work 
upon inconsequent and imperfect ; but the soldier, not 
moved by his entreaty, instantly killed him. Others, 
again, relate that as Archimedes was carrying to Marcellus 
mathematical instruments, dials, spheres, and angles by 
which the magnitude of the sun might be measured to 
the sight, some soldiers, seeing him, and thinking that he 
carried gold in a vessel, slew him. 

" Certain it is, that his death was very afflicting to Mar- 
cellus, and that Marcellus ever after regarded him that 
killed him as a murderer, and that he sought for the 
kindred of Archimedes and honored them with signal 
honors." 

Archimedes, as has been said, had asked that .his mon- 
ument might be a cylinder bearing a sphere, in commem- 
oration of his discovery of the proportion between a 
cylinder and a sphere of the same diameter. A century 
and a half after, when Cicero was quaestor of Sicily, he 
found this monument, neglected, forgotten, and covered 
with a rank growth of thistles and other weeds. 

" It was left," he says, "for one who came from Arpinas, 
to show to the men of Syracuse where their greatest 
countryman lay buried." 



III. 

FRIAR BACON. 

" A LL the world seems to have known of Columbus's 
•£*• discoveries as soon as he came home, but all the 
world did not know at once of Archimedes's inventions ; 
indeed, I should think the world did not know now what 
all of them are." 

Hester Van Brunt was saying this in the hall, as the 
girls laid off their waterproofs, when they next met the 
Colonel. 

" I think that may often be said of what we call Inven- 
tions and what we call Discoveries," he said, " till quite 
recent times. When a man invented a new process, it was 
supposed that if he could keep the secret, it might be to 
him a very valuable secret. But when one discovered an 
island or a continent, it was almost impossible to keep the 
secret. They tried it sometimes, as you know. But there 
must be a whole ship's crew who know something of the 
new-found land, and from some of them the secret would 
leak out. 

" But there has been many a process in the arts lost, 
because the man who discovered the new quality in nature 
or invented the new method in manufacture kept it secret, 
so that he might do better work than his competitors. 
This went so far that boys were apprenticed to masters 
to learn ' the secrets of their trades.' " 



ROGER BACON: 37 

Fergus said that in old times inventors were not always 
treated very kindly. If people thought they were sorcerers, 
or in league with the Devil, they did not care much for 
the invention. 

Uncle Fritz said they would find plenty of instances of 
the persecution of inventors, even to quite a late date. 
It is impossible, of course, to say how many good things 
were lost to the world by the pig-headedness which dis- 
couraged new inventions. It is marvellous to think what 
progress single men made, who had to begin almost at 
the beginning, and learn for themselves what every in- 
telligent boy or girl now finds ready for him in the 
Cyclopaedia. It is very clear that the same beginnings 
were made again and again by some of the early inventors. 
Then, what they learned had been almost forgotten. There 
was no careful record of their experiments, or, if any, it 
was in one manuscript, and that was not accessible to 
people trying to follow in their steps. 

"I have laid out for you," said Uncle Fritz, "some of 
the early accounts of Friar Bacon, — Roger Bacon. He is 
one of the most distinguished of the early students of what 
we now call natural philosophy in England. It was in one 
of the darkest centuries of the Dark Ages. 

" But see what he did. 

" There are to be found in his writings new and ingeni- 
ous views of Optics, — as, on the refraction of light, on the 
apparent magnitude of objects, on the magnified appear- 
ance of the sun and moon when on the horizon. He 
describes very exactly the nature and effects of concave 
and convex lenses, and speaks of their application to the 
purposes of reading and of viewing distant objects, both 
terrestrial and celestial ; and it is easy to prove from his 
writings that he was either the inventor or the improver of 



3S S7VRIES OF INVENTION. 

f he telescope. He also gives descriptions of the camera 
obscura and of the burning-glass. He made, too. several 
chemical discoveries. In one place he speaks of an inex- 
tinguishable fire, which was probably a kind of phosphorus. 
In another he says that an artificial fire could be prepared 
with saltpetre and other ingredients which would burn al 
the greatest distance, and by means of which thunder and 
lightning could be imitated. He says that a portion of this 
mixture of the size of an inch, properly prepared, would 
destroy a whole army, and even a city, with a tremendous 
explosion accompanied by a brilliant light. In another 
place he says distinctly that thunder and lightning could 
be imitated by means of saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal. 
As these are the ingredients of gunpowder, it is clear that 
he had an adequate idea of its composition and its power. 
He was intimately acquainted with geography and as- 
tronomy. He had discovered the errors of the calendar 
and their causes, and in his proposals for correcting them 
he approached very nearly to the truth. He made a cor- 
rected calendar, of which there is a copy in the Bodleian 
Library in Oxford. In moral philosophy, also, Roger 
Bacon has laid down some excellent precepts for the 
conduct of life. 1 

" Now, if you had such a biography of such a man now, 
you would know that without much difficulty you could 
find all his more important observations in print. So soon 
as he thought them important, he would communicate 
them to some society which would gladly publish them. 
In the first place, he would be glad to have the credit of 
an improvement, an invention, or a discovery. If the in- 
vention were likely to be profitable, the nation would secure 
the profit to him if he fully revealed the process. They 

1 Encyclopaedia Americana : art. " Roger Bacon." 



BACON'S LIFE. 39 

would give him, by a ' patent,' the right to the exclusive 
profit for a series of years. The nation thus puts an end 
to the old temptation to secrecy, or tries to do so. 

" But if you will read some of the queer passages from 
the old lives of Bacon, you will see how very vague were 
the notions which the people of his own time had of what 
he was doing." 

Then Hester read some passages which Colonel Ingham 
had marked for her. 



OF THE PARENTS AND BIRTH OF FRYER BACON, 
AND HOW HE ADDICTED HIMSELF TO LEARN- 
ING. 

In most men's opinions he was born in the West part 
of England and was son to a wealthy Farmer, who put him 
to School to the Parson of the Town where he was born : 
not with intent that he should turn Fryer (as he did), but 
to get so much understanding, that he might manage the 
better that wealth he was to leave him. But young Bacon 
took his learning so fast, that the Priest could not teach 
him any more, which made him desire his Master that he 
would speak to his father to put him to Oxford, that he 
might not lose that little learning that he had gained: 
his Master was very willing so to do : and one day, meet- 
ing his father, told him, that he had received a great bless- 
ing of God, in that he had given him so wise and hopeful 
a Child as his son Roger Bacon was (for so was he named) 
and wished him withal to doe his duty, and to bring up so 
his Child, that he might shew his thankfulness to God, 
which could not better be done than in making him a 
Scholar ; for he found by his sudden taking of his learn- 
ing, that he was a child likely to prove a very great Clerk : 



40 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

hereat old Bacon was not well pleased (for he desired to 
bring him up to Plough and to the Cart, as he himself was 
brought) yet he for reverence sake to the Priest, shewed 
not his anger, but kindly thanked him for his paines and 
counsel, yet desired him not to speak any more concern- 
ing that matter, for he knew best what best pleased him- 
self, and that he would do : so broke they off their talk 
and parted. 

So soon as the old man came home, he called to his 
son for his books, which when he had, he locked them up, 
and gave the Boy a Cart Whip in place of them, saying to 
him : " Boy, I will have you no Priest, you shall not be 
better learned than I, you can tell by the Almanack when 
it is best sowing Wheat, when Barley, Peas and Beans : 
and when the best libbing is, when to sell Grain and Cat- 
tle I will teach thee ; for I have all Fairs and Markets as 
perfect in my memory, as Sir John, our Priest, has Mass 
without Book : take me this Whip, I will teach the use 
of it. It will be more profitable to thee than this harsh 
Latin : make no reply, but follow my counsel, or else by 
the Mass thou shalt feel the smart hand of my anger." 
Young Bacon thought this but hard dealing, yet he would 
not reply, but within six or eight days he gave his Father 
the slip, and went to a Cloister some twenty miles off, 
where he was entertained, and so continued his Learning, 
and in small time came to be so famous, that he was sent 
for to the University of Oxford, where he long time 
studied, and grew so excellent in the secrets of Art and 
Nature, that not England only, but all Christendom, ad- 
mired him. 



THE BRAZEN HEAD. 4 1 



HOW FRYER BACON MADE A BRAZEN HEAD TO 
SPEAK, BY THE WHICH HE WOULD HAVE 
WALLED ENGLAND ABOUT WITH BRASS. 

Fryer Bacon, reading one day of the many conquests 
of England, bethought himself how he might keep it here- 
after from the like conquests, and so make himself famous 
hereafter to all posterity. This (after great study) he 
found could be no way so well done as one ; which was 
to make a head of Brass, and if he could make this head 
to speak (and hear it when it speaks) then might he be 
able to wall all England about with Brass. To this pur- 
pose he got one Fryer Bungy to assist him, who was a 
great Scholar and a Magician, (but not to be compared to 
Fryer Bacon), these two with great study and pains so 
framed a head of Brass, that in the inward parts thereof 
there was all things like as in a natural man's head : this 
being done, they were as far from perfection of the work 
as they were before, for they knew not how to give those 
parts that they had made motion, without which it was 
impossible that it should speak : many books they read, 
but yet could not find out any hope of what they sought, 
that at the last they concluded to raise a spirit, and to 
know of him that which they could not attain to by their 
own studies. To do this they prepared all things ready 
and went one Evening to a wood thereby, and after many 
ceremonies used, they spake the words of conjuration, 
which the Devil straight obeyed and appeared unto them, 
asking what they would? "Know," said Fryer Bacon, 
"that we have made an artificial head of Brass, which we 
would have to speak, to the furtherance of which we have 
raised thee, and being raised, we will keep thee here, un- 



42 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

less thou tell to us the way and manner how to make this 
Head to speak." The Devil told him that he had not that 
power of himself: " Beginner of lies," said Fryer Bacon, 
" I know that thou wouldst dissemble, and therefore tell it 
us quickly, or else we will here bind thee to remain dur- 
ing our pleasures." At these threatenings the Devil con- 
sented to do it, and told them, that with a continual fume 
of the six hottest simples it should have motion, and in 
one month space speak, the Time of the month or day he 
knew not : also he told them, that if they heard it not be- 
fore it had done speaking, all their labour should be lost : 
they being satisfied, licensed the Spirit for to depart. 

Then went these two learned Fryers home again, and 
prepared the Simples ready, and made the fume, and 
with continual watching attended when this Brazen-head 
would speak : thus watched they for three weeks without 
any rest, so that they were so weary and sleepy, that they 
could not any longer refrain from rest : then called Fryer 
Bacon his man Miles, and told him, that it was not un- 
known to him what pains Fryer Bungy and himself had 
taken for three weeks space, only to make, and to hear 
the Brazen-head speak, which if they did not, then had 
they lost all their labour, and all England had a great loss 
thereby : therefore he entreated Miles that he would watch 
whilst that they slept, and call them if the Head speake. 
" Fear not, good Master," said Miles, " I will not sleep, 
but hearken and attend upon the head, and if it do 
chance to speak, I will call you : therefore I pray take you 
both your rests and let me alone for watching this head." 
After Fryer Bacon had given him a great charge the sec- 
ond time, Fryer Bungy and he went to sleep, and Miles, 
alone to watch the Brazen -head. Miles to keep himself 
from sleeping, got a Tabor and Pipe, and being merry 



MILES IS SCORNFUL. 43 

disposed sang him many a merry Song ; and thus with his 
own Music and his Songs spent he his time, and kept from 
sleeping at last. After some noise the Head spake these 
two words : " Time is" Miles hearing it to speak no 
more, thought his Master would be angry if he waked him 
for that, and therefore he let them both sleep, and began 
to mock the Head in this manner : " Thou Brazen-faced 
Head, hath my Master took all this pains about thee, and 
now dost thou requite him with two words, Time is ? had 
he watched with a Lawyer so long as he hath watched 
with thee, he would have given him more, and better 
words than thou hast yet. If thou canst speak no wiser, 
they shall sleep till doom's day for me. Time is : I know 
Time is, and that thou shall hear, good man Brazen face." 
And with this he sang him a song to his own music as to 
times and seasons, and went on, " Do you tell us, Copper- 
nose, when Time is? I hope we Scholars know our 
Times, when to drink drunk, when to kiss our hostess, 
when to go on her score, and when to pay it, that 
time comes seldom." After half an hour had passed, the 
Head did speak again, two words, which were these : 
" Time was." Miles respected these words as little as he 
did the former, and would not wake them, but still scoffed 
at the Brazen head, that it had learned no better words, 
and have such a Tutor as his Master : and in scorn of it 
sung a Song to the tune of " A Rich Merchant man," be- 
ginning as follows : 

Time was when thou a kettle 

Wert filled with better matter : 
But Fryer Bacon did thee spoil, 

When he thy sides did batter, 

with more to the same purpose. " Time was" said he, 
'* I know that, Brazen face, without your telling, I know 



44 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

Time was, and I know what things there was when 
Time was, and if you speak no wiser, no Master shall be 
waked for me." Thus Miles talked and sung till another 
half hour was gone, then the Brazen head spake again 
these words, " Time is past : " and therewith fell down, and 
presently followed a terrible noise, with strange flashes of 
fire, so that Miles was half dead with fear. At this noise 
the two Fryers awaked, and wondered to see the whole 
room so full of smoke, but that being vanished they might 
perceive the Brazen head broken and lying on the ground : 
at this sight they grieved, and called Miles to know how 
this came. Miles half dead with fear, said that it fell 
down of itself, and that with the noise and fire that fol- 
lowed he was almost frighted out of his wits : Fryer Bacon 
asked him if he did not speak? "Yes," quoth Miles, 
" it spake, but to no purpose. I '11 have a Parrot speak 
better in that time than you have been teaching this 
Brazen head." " Out on thee, villain," said Fryer Bacon, 
" thou hast undone us both, hadst thou but called us when 
it did speak, all England had been walled round about with 
Brass, to its glory, and our eternal fames : what were the 
words it spake?" "Very few," said Miles, "and those 
none of the wisest that I have heard neither : first he 
said, ' Time is.' " " Hadst thou called us then," said 
Fryer Bacon, "we had been made for ever." "Then," 
said Miles, " half an hour after it spake again and said 
' Time was.' " "And wouldst thou not call us then?" 
said Bungy. " Alas ! " said Miles, " I thought he would 
have told me some long Tale, and then I purposed to 
have called you : then half an hour after, he cried ' Time 
is past,' and made such a noise, that he hath waked you 
himself, methinks." At this Fryer Bacon was in such a 
rage, that he would have beaten his man, but he was re- 



CAPTURE OF A TOWN. 45 

strained by Bungy : but nevertheless for his punishment, 
he with his Art struck him dumb for one whole month's 
space. Thus that great work of these learned Fryers was 
overthrown (to their great griefs) by this simple fellow. 

HOW FRYER BACON BY HIS ART TOOK A TOWN, 
WHEN THE KING HAD LAIN BEFORE IT THREE 
MONTHS, WITHOUT DOING IT ANY HURT. 

In those times when Fryer Bacon did all his strange 
tricks, the Kings of England had a great part of Fra?ice 
which they held a long time, till civil wars at home in this 
Land made them to lose it. It did chance that the King 
of England (for some cause best known to himself) went 
into France with a great Army, where after many victo- 
ries, he did besiege a strong Town, and lay before it full 
three months, without doing to the Town any great dam- 
age, but rather received the hurt himself. This did so 
vex the King, that he sought to take it in any way, either 
by policy or strength : to this intent he made Proclama- 
tion, that whosoever could deliver this Town into his 
hand, he should have for his pains ten thousand Crowns 
truly paid. This was proclaimed, but there was none 
found that would undertake it : at length the news did 
come into England of this great reward that was prom- 
ised. Fryer Bacon hearing of it, went into France, and 
being admitted to the King's presence, he thus spake 
unto him: "Your Majesty I am sure hath not forgot 
your poor servant Bacon, the love that you showed to me 
being last in your presence, hath drawn me for to leave 
my Country and my Studies, to do your Majesty service : 
I beseech your Grace, to command me so far as my poor 
Art or life may do you pleasure." The King thanked 



46 STORIES OF INVENlIOiY. 

him for his love, but told him that he had now mote need 
of Arms than Art, and wanted bvave Soldiers rathei than 
learned Scholars. Fryer Bacon answered, " Your Grace 
saith well ; but let me (under correction) tell you, that 
Art oftentimes doth these things that are impossible to 
Arms, which I will make good in few examples. I will 
speak only of things performed by Art and Nature, wherein 
there shall be nothing Magical : and first by the figuration 
of Art, there may be made Instruments of Navigation 
without men to row in them, as great ships, to brook the 
Sea, only with one man to steer them, and they shall sail 
far more swiftly than if they were full of men : Also Char- 
iots that shall move with an unspeakable force, without 
any living creature to stir them. Likewise, an Instrument 
may be made to fly withal, if one sit in the midst of the 
Instrument, and do turn an engine, by which the wings 
being Artificially composed, may beat air after the man- 
ner of a flying Bird. By an Instrument of three fingers 
high, and three fingers broad, a man may rid himself 
and others from all Imprisonment : yea, such an Instru- 
ment may easily be made, whereby a man may violently 
draw unto him a thousand men, will they, nill they, or any 
other thing. By Art also an Instrument may be made, 
wherewith men may walk in the bottom of the Sea or 
Rivers without bodily danger : this Alexander the Great 
used (as the Ethnic philosopher reporteth) to the end he 
might behold the Secrets of the Seas. But Physical Fig- 
urations are far more strange : for by that may be framed 
Perspects and Looking-glasses, that one thing shall appear 
to be many, as one man shall appear to be a whole Army, 
and one Sun or Moon shall seem divers. Also perspects 
may be so framed, that things far off shall seem most nigh 
unto us : with one of these did Julius Ccesar from the 



ROGER BACON'S SPEECH. 47 

Sea. coasts in Fra?ice marke and observe the situation of 
the Castles in England. Bodies may also be so framed, 
that the greatest things shall appear to be the least, the 
highest lowest, the most secret to be the most manifest, 
and in such like sort the contrary. Thus did Socrates 
perceive, that the Dragon which did destroy the City and 
Country adjoining with his noisome breath, and conta- 
gious influence, did lurk in the dens between the Moun- 
tains : and thus may all things that are done in Cities or 
Armies be discovered by the enemies. Again, in such 
wise may bodies be framed, that venemous and infectious 
influences may be brought whither a man will : In this 
did Aristotle instruct Alexander; through which instruction 
the poyson of a Basiliske, being lifted up upon the wall of 
a City, the poyson was conveyed into the City, to the de- 
struction thereof: Also perspects may be made to de- 
ceive the sight, as to make a man believe that he seeth 
great store of riches when there is not any. But it apper- 
tained! to a higher power of Figuration, that beams should 
be brought and assembled by divers flections and reflec- 
tions in any distance that we will, to burne anything that 
is opposite unto it, as is witnessed by those Perspects or 
Glasses that burn before and behind. But the greatest 
and chiefest of all figurations and things figured, is to de- 
scribe the heavenly bodies, according to their length and 
breadth in a corporal figure, wherein they may corporally 
move with a daily motion. These things are worth a 
kingdom to a wise man. These may sufflse, my royal 
Lord, to shew what Art can do : and these, with many 
tilings more, as strange, I am able by Art to perform. 
Then take no thought for winning this Town, for by my 
Art you shall (ere many days be past) have your desire." 
The King all this while heard him with admnation : but 



48 STORIES OF INVENTION'. 

hearing him now, that he would undertake to win the 
Town, he burst out in these speeches: "Most learned 
Bacon, do but what thou hast said, and I will give thee 
what thou most desirest, either wealth or honour, choose 
what thou wilt, and I will be as ready to perform, as I 
have been to promise." 

" Your Majesty's love is all that I seek," said the Fryer, 
"let me have that, and I have honour enough, for wealth, 
I have content, the wise should seek no more : but to the 
purpose. Let your Pioneers raise up a mount so high, (or 
rather higher), than the wall, and then you shall see some 
probability of that which I have promised." 

This Mount in two days was raised : then Frier Bacon 
went with the King to the Top of it, and did with a per- 
spect shew to him the Town, as plainly as if he had been 
in it : at this the King did wonder, but Fryer Bacon told 
him, that he should wonder more, ere next day noon : 
against which Time, he desired him to have his whole 
Army in readiness, for to scale the wall upon a signal given 
by him, from the Mount. This the King promised to do, 
and so returned to his Tent full of Joy, that he should gain 
this strong Town. In the morning Fryer Bacon went up 
to the Mount and set his Glasses, and other Instruments 
up : in the meantime the King ordered his Army, and 
stood in a readiness for to give the assaults : when the sig- 
nal was given which was the waving of a flag. Ere nine 
of the clock Fryer Bacon had burnt the State-house of the 
Town, with other houses only by his Mathematical Glasses, 
which made the whole Town in an uproar, for none did 
know how it came : whilst that they were quenching of the 
same, Fryer Bacon did wave his flag : upon which signal 
given, the King set upon the Town, and took it with little 
or no resistance. Thus through the Art of this learned 



BACON'S FAREWELL TO MAGIC. 49 

man the King got this strong Town, which he could not 
do with all his men without Fryer Bacon's help. 



HOW FRYER BACON BURNT HIS BOOKS OF MAGIC 
AND GAVE HIMSELF TO THE STUDY OF DIVIN- 
ITY ONLY; AND HOW HE TURNED ANCHORITE. 

Now in a time when Fryer Bacon kept his Chamber 
(having some great grief) he fell into divers meditations : 
sometimes into the vanity of Arts and Sciences : then 
would he condemn himself for studying of those things 
that were so contrary to his Order and Soul's health ; and 
would say that Magic made a Man a Devil; sometimes 
would he meditate on Divinity; then would he cry out 
upon himself for neglecting the study of it, and for study- 
ing Magic : sometime would he meditate on the shortness 
of man's life, then would he condemn himself for spending 
a time so short, so ill as he had done his : so would he go 
from one thing to another and in all condemn his former 
studies. 

And that the world should know how truly he did repent 
his wicked life, he caused to be made a great fire ; and 
sending for many of his Friends, Scholars, and others, he 
spake to them after this manner : " My good Friends and 
fellow Students, it is not unknown unto you, how that 
through my Art I have attained to that credit, that few 
men living ever had. Of the wonders that I have done, 
all England can speak, both King and Commons : I have 
unlocked the secret of Art and Nature, and let the world 
see those things, that have layen hid since the death of 
Hermes, that rare and profound Philosopher : My Studies 
have found the secrets of the Stars ; the Books that I have 
made of them, do serve for Precedents to our greatest 



50 STORIES of invention: 

Doctors, so excellent hath my Judgement been therein. 
I likewise have found out the secrets of Trees, Plants and 
Stones, with their several uses ; yet all this knowledge of 
mine I esteem so lightly, that I wish that I were ignorant, 
and knew nothing : for the knowledge of these things, (as 
I have truly found) serveth not to better a man in good- 
ness, but only to make him proud and think too well of 
himself. What hath all my knowledge of nature's secrets 
gained me ? Only this, the loss of a better knowledge, the 
loss of divine Studies, which makes the immortal part of 
man (his Soul) blessed. I have found, that my knowledge 
has been a heavy burden, and has kept down my good 
thoughts : but I will remove the cause which are these 
Books : which I do purpose here before you all to burn." 
They all intreated him to spare the Books, because in them 
there were those things that after-ages might receive great 
benefit by. He would not hearken unto them but threw 
them all into the fire, and in that flame burnt the greatest 
learning in the world. Then did he dispose of all his 
goods ; some part he gave to poor Scholars, and some he 
gave to other poor folks : nothing he left for himself: then 
caused he to be made in the Church-wall a Cell, where he 
locked himself in, and there remained till his death. His 
time he spent in Prayer, Meditation and such Divine Ex- 
ercises, and did seek by all means to persuade men from 
the study of Magic. Thus lived he some two years space 
in that Cell, never coming forth : his meat and drink he 
received in at a window, and at that window he did dis- 
course with those that came to him; His grave he digged 
with his own nails, and was laid there when he dyed. 
Thus was the Life and Death of this famous Fryer, who 
lived the most part of his life a Magician, and died a true 
penitent sinner and an Anchorite. 



MODERN- MARVELS. 5 I 

When Hester had finished reading, one of the boys 
said that if people believed such things as that, he thought 
the wonder was that they made any progress at all. Uncle 
Fritz said that in matters which make up what we call 
science, they did not make much progress. The arts of 
the world do not seem to have advanced much between 
the days of Solomon and those of William the Conqueror. 

" As you see," said Uncle Fritz, " an inventor was set 
down as a magician. I think you can remember more 
instances." 

Yes. Almost all the young people remember that in 
Marco Polo's day there was a distinguished Venetian en- 
gineer with the armies of Genghis Khan, whose wonderful 
successes gave rise, perhaps, to the story of Aladdin. 1 
The scene of his successes was Pekin ; and it is to be re- 
membered that the story of Aladdin is not properly one of 
the Arabian Nights, and that the scene is laid in China. 

This led them to trying to match the wonders of Alad- 
din and of the Arabian Nights by the wonders of modern 
invention ; and they pleased themselves by thinking of 
marvels they could show to unlearned nations if they had 
the resources of Mr. Edison's laboratory. 

"Aladdin rubbed his lamp," said Blanche. "You see, 
the lamp was his electrical machine ; and when he rubbed 
it, the lightnings went flying hither and thither, and said, 
1 Here we are.' " 

" That is all very fine," said Jack Withers ; " but I stand 
by the Arabian Nights, after all, and I think I shall, till 
Mr. Edison or the Taunton locomotive shop will make 
for me some high-stepper on whose back I may rise 
above the clouds, pass over the length and breadth of 
Massachusetts, descend in the garden where Blanche is 
1 See " Stories of Adventure." 



52 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

confined by the hated mistress of a boarding-school in 
Walpole, and then, winning her ready consent, can mount 
again with her, and before morning descend in the garden 
of a beautiful cottage at Newport. We will spend six 
weeks in playing tennis in the daytime, dancing in the 
Casino in the evenings, and in sailing in Frank Shattuck's 
yacht between whiles. Then, and not till then, would 
I admit that the Arabian Nights have been outdone by 
modern science." 

They all laughed at Jack's extravaganza, which is of a 
kind to which they are beginning to be accustomed. But 
Mabel stuck to her text, and said seriously, that Uncle 
Fred had said that what people now called science sprung 
from the workshops of these very magicians. " The magi- 
cians then had all the science there was. And if magic 
had not got a bad name, should we not call the men of 
science magicians now? " 

Uncle Fritz said yes to all her questions, but he said 
that they did not cover the whole matter. The difference 
between a magician and a man of science involves these 
habits : the magician keeps secret what he knows, while 
the man of science discloses all he learns. Then the 
magician affected to have spiritual power at command, 
while the man of science only affects to use what he calls 
physical powers. Till either of them tell us how to dis- 
tinguish spiritual forces from physical forces, the second 
distinction is of the less importance. But the other has 
made all the difference in the world between the poor 
magic-men and the science-men. For, as they had seen 
with Friar Bacon, the magic-men have had their stories 
told by most ignorant people, seeing they did not gen- 
erally leave any records behind them ; but the men of 
modern science, having chosen to tell their own stories, 



VIRGIL AT SCHOOL. 53 

have had them told, on the whole, reasonably well, 
though generally stupidly. 

" What a pity we have not Solomon's books of science ! " 
said John Tolman. 

" It is one of the greatest of pities that such books as 
those were not kept. It seems as if people would have 
built on such foundations, and that Science would have 
marched from step to step, instead of beginning over and 
over again. But we do have Pliny's Natural History, as 
he chose to call it. Far from building on that as a foun- 
dation, the Dark Ages simply accepted it. And there are 
blunders or sheer lies in that book, and in Aristotle's 
books, and Theophrastus's, and other such, which have 
survived even to our day." 

The children were peeping into the collection from 
which the Friar Bacon stories had been read, and they 
lighted on these scraps about the supposed life of Virgil. 
To the people of the Dark Ages Virgil was much more a 
man of magic than a poet. 



HOW VIRGILIUS WAS SET TO SCHOOL. 

As Virgilius was born, then the town of Rome quaked 
and trembled : and in his youth he was wise and subtle, 
and was put to school at Tolentin, where he studied dili- 
gently, for he was of great understanding. Upon a time 
the scholars had licence to go to play and sport them in 
the fields after the usance of the old time ; and there was 
also Virgilius thereby also walking among the hills all 
about : it fortuned he spied a great hole in the side of a 
great hill wherein he went so deep that he could not see 
no more light, and then he went a little further therein, 



54 



STORIES OF INVENTION. 



and then he saw some light again, and then went he forth 
straight : and within a little while after, he heard a voice 
that called, " Virgilius, Virgilius ; " and he looked about, 
and he could not see no body ; then Virgilius spake and 
asked, "Who calleth me?" Then heard he the voice 
again, but he saw nobody : then said he, " Virgilius, see 
ye not that little board lying beside you there, marked 
with that word? " Then answered Virgilius, "I see that 
board well enough." The voice said, " Do away that 
board, and let me out thereat." Then answered Virgilius 
to the voice that was under the little board, and said, 
" Who art thou that talkest me so ! " Then answered 
the devil : " I am a devil, conjured out of the body of a 
certain man, and banished till the day of judgement, with- 
out I be delivered by the hands of men. Thus, Virgilius, 
I pray you to deliver me out of this pain, and I shall 
shew unto thee many books of necromancy, and how thou 
shalt come by it lightly and know the practise therein, 
that no man in the science of necromancy shall pass thee ; 
and moreover I shall shew and inform you so that thou 
shalt have all thy desire, whereby methinks it is a great 
gift for so little a doing, for ye may also thus all your 
friends helpen, and make your enemies unmighty." 
Through that great promise was Virgil tempted ; he bad 
the fiend shew the books to him that he might have and 
occupy them at his will. And so the fiend shewed him, 
and then Virgilius pulled open a board, and there was a 
little hole, and thereat crawled the devil out like an eel, 
and came and stood before Virgilius like a big man ; 
thereat Virgilius was astonished and marvelled greatly 
thereof that so great a man might come out at so little a 
hole ; then said Virgilius, " should ye well pass into the 
hole that ye came out of ? " " Yea, I shall well," said the 



VIRGIL' S COPPER HORSE. 55 

devil. — " I hold the best pledge that I have, ye shall not 
do it." " Well," said the devil, " thereto I consent." 
And then the devil crawled into the little hole again, and 
as he was therein, Virgilius covered the hole again, and 
so was the devil beguiled, and might not there come out 
again, but there abideth still therein. Then called the 
devil dreadfully to Virgilius and said, " What have ye 
done?" Virgilius answered, " Abide there still to your 
day appointed." And from thenceforth abideth he there. 
And so Virgilius became very cunning in the practise of 
the black science. 



HOWE THE EMPEROR ASKED COUNSEL OF VIR- 
GILIUS, HOW THE NIGHT RUNNERS AND ILL 
DOERS MIGHT BE RID-OUT OF THE STREETS. 

• The emperor had many complaints of the night run- 
ners and thieves, and also of the great murdering of 
people in the night, in so much that the emperor asked 
counsel of Virgilius, and said : " That he hath great com- 
plaints of the thieves that runneth by night for they kill 
many men ; what counsel, Virgilius, is best to be done? " 
Then answered Virgilius to the emperor, " Ye shall make 
a horse of copper and a copper man upon his back, 
having in his hands a flail of iron, and that horse, ye 
shall so bring afore the towne house, and ye shall let cry 
that a man from henceforth at ten of the clock should 
ring a bell, and he that after the bell was rung in the 
streets should be slain, no work thereof should be done." 
And when this cry was made the ruffians set not a point, 
but kept the streets as they did afore and would not let 
therefor ; and as soon as the bell was rung at ten of the 
clock, then leaped the horse of copper with the copper 



56 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

man through the streets of Rome, insomuch that he left 
not one street in Rome unsought ; and as soon as he 
found any man or woman in the street he slew them 
stalk dead, insomuch that he slew above two hundred 
persons or more. And this seeing, the thieves and night- 
runners how they might find a remedy therefor, thought 
in their minds to make a drag with a ladder thereon ; and 
as they would go out by night they took their ladders 
with them, and when they heard the horse come, then 
cast they the drag upon the houses, and so went up upon 
their ladders to the top of the houses, so that the copper 
man might not touch them ; and so abide they still in 
their wicked doing. Then came they again to the em- 
peror and complained, and then the emperor asked coun- 
sel of Virgilius ; and Virgilius answered and said, " that 
then he must get two copper hounds and set them of 
either side of the copper horse, and let cry again that 
no body after the bell is rung should depart out of their 
house that would live." But the night walkers cared not 
a point for that cry ; but when they heard the horse 
coming, with their ladders climbed upon the houses, but 
the dogs leaped after and tore them all in pieces ; and 
thus the noise went through Rome, in so much that no- 
body durst in the night go in the street, and thus all the 
night-walkers were destroyed. 

HOW VIRGILIUS MADE A LAMP THAT AT ALL 
TIMES BURNED. 

For profit of the common people, Virgilius on a great 
mighty marble pillar, did make a bridge that came up to 
the palace, and so went Virgilius well up the pillar out of 
the palace j that palace and pillar stood in the midst of 



VIRGILIUS' S LAMP. 57 

Rome ; and upon this pillar made he a lamp of glass that 
always burned without going out, and nobody might put 
it out ; and this lamp lightened over all the city of Rome 
from the one corner to the other, and there was not so 
little a street but it gave such light that it seemed two 
torches there had stand ; and upon the walls of the palace 
made he a metal man that held in his hand a metal bow 
that pointed ever upon the lamp for to shoot it out ; but 
always burned the lamp and gave light over all Rome. 
And upon a time went the burgesses' daughters to play 
in the palace and beheld the metal man ; and one of them 
asked in sport, why he shot not ? And then she came to 
the man and with her hand touched the bow, and then 
the bolt flew out, and brake the lamp that Virgilius made ; 
and it was wonder that the maiden went not out of her 
mind for the great fear she had, and also the other bur- 
gesses' daughters that were in her company, of the great 
stroke that it gave when it hit the lamp, and when they 
saw the metal man so swiftly run his way; and never 
after was he no more seen ; and this foresaid lamp was 
abiding burning after the death of Virgilius by the space 
of three hundred years or more. 

It is on the wrecks and ruins recorded in such fables as 
these that modern science is builded. 



IV. 

BENVENUTO CELLINI. 

" "NT ®^* 7 we ^^ leave the fairy tales," said Uncle Fritz, 

**• ^ " and begin on modern times." 

" Modern times means since 1492," said Alice, — " the 
only date in history I am quite sure of, excepting 1866." 

" Eighteen-hundred and sixty-six," said John Good- 
rich, — " the Annus Mirabilis, celebrated for the birth of 
Miss Alice Francis and Mr. J. G." 

" Hush, hush ! Uncle Fritz wants to say something." 

" We will leave the fairy tales," said poor chicken- 
pecked Uncle Fritz, " and begin with Benvenuto Cellini. 
Who has seen any of his work?" 

Several of the girls who had been in Europe remem- 
bered seeing gold and silver work of Benvenuto Cellini's 
in the museums. Uncle Fritz told them that the little 
hand-bell used on his own tea-table was modelled at 
Chicopee, in Massachusetts, from a bell which was the 
design of Benvenuto Cellini ; and he sent for the bell that 
the children might see how ingenious was the ornamenta- 
tion, and how simply the different designs were connected 
together. 

He told Alice she might read first from Vasari's ac- 
count of him. Vasari's book, which the children now 
saw for the first time, is a very entertaining one. Vasari 
was himself an artist, of the generation just following 



BENVENUTO CELLINI. 59 

Michael Angelo. He was, indeed, the contemporary of 
Raphael. But he is remembered now, not for his pic- 
tures, nor for his work in architecture, both of which were 
noted in his time, but for his lives of the most excellent 
painters, sculptors, and architects, which was first pub- 
lished in 1550. Benvenuto Cellini was born ten years be- 
fore Vasari, and here is a part of Vasari's life of him. 



LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI. 

Benvenuto Cellini, citizen of Florence, born in 1500, 
at present a sculptor, in his youth cultivated the gold- 
smith's business, and had no equal in that branch. He 
set jewels, and adorned them with diminutive figures, 
exquisitely formed, and some of them so curious and 
fanciful that nothing finer or more beautiful can be 
conceived. At Rome he made for Pope Clement VII. 
a button to be worn upon his pontifical habit, fixing a 
diamond to it with the most exquisite art. He was 
employed to make the stamps for the Roman mint, 
and there never have been seen finer coins than those 
that were struck in Rome at that period. 

After the death of Pope Clement, Benvenuto returned 
to Florence, where he made stamps with the head of 
Duke Alessandro, for the mint, wonderfully beautiful. 
Benvenuto, having at last devoted himself to sculpture 
and casting statues, made in France many works, while 
he was employed at the Court of King Francis I. He 
afterwards came back to his native country, where he 
executed in metal the statue of Perseus, who cut off 
Medusa's head. This work was brought to perfection 
with the greatest art and diligence imaginable. 



60 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

Though I might here enlarge on the productions of 
Benvenuto, who always shewed himself a man of great 
spirit and vivacity, bold, active, enterprising, and for- 
midable to his enemies, — a man, in short, who knew 
as well how to speak to princes as to exert himself in 
his art, — I shall add nothing further, since he has written 
an account of his life and works, and a treatise on gold- 
smith's work as well as on casting statues and many other 
subjects, with more art and eloquence than it is possible 
for me to imitate. I shall therefore content myself with 
this account of his chief performances. 

Benvenuto was quite proud of his own abilities as a 
writer. Very fortunately for us he has left his own 
memoirs. Here is the introduction. 



BENVENUTO'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

" It is a duty incumbent on upright and credible men 
of all ranks, who have performed anything noble or 
praiseworthy, to record, in their own writing, the events 
of their lives ; yet they should not commence this hon- 
orable task before they have passed their fortieth year. 
Such at least is my opinion, now that I have completed 
my fifty-eighth year, and am settled in Florence. 

" Looking back on some delightful and happy events of 
my life, and on many misfortunes so truly overwhelming 
that the appalling retrospect makes me wonder how I 
reached this age, in vigor and prosperity, through God's 
goodness, I have resolved to publish an account of my 
life. 

" My grandfather, Andrea Cellini, was still living when 



CELLINI'S EDUCATION. 6 1 

I was about three years of age, and he was then above 
a hundred. As they were one day removing a water- 
pipe, a large scorpion, which they had not perceived, 
came out of it. The scorpion descended upon the ground 
and had got under a great bench, when I, seeing it, ran 
and caught it in my hand. This scorpion was of such 
a size that whilst I held it in my little hand, it put out 
its tail on one side, and on the other darted its two 
mouths. I ran overjoyed to my grandfather, crying out, 
' Grandfather, look at my pretty little crab ! ' The good 
old man, who knew it to be a scorpion, was so frightened, 
and so apprehensive for my safety, that he seemed ready 
to drop down dead, and begged me with great eager- 
ness to give the creature to him ; but I grasped it the 
harder and cried, for I did not choose to part with it. 
My father, who was in the house, ran to us upon hearing 
the noise, and, happening just at that instant to espy a 
pair of scissors, he laid hold of them, and, by caressing 
and playing with me, he contrived to cut off the head 
and tail of the scorpion. Then, finding I had received 
no harm from the venomous reptile, he pronounced it 
a happy omen." 



His father taught him to play upon the flute, and 
wished him to devote himself to music ; but his own 
inclinations were different. 

" Having attained the age of fifteen, I engaged myself, 
against my father's inclinations, with a goldsmith named 
Antonio di Sandro, an excellent artist and a very worthy 
man. My father would not have him allow me any 
wages ; for this reason, that since I voluntarily applied 
myself to this art, I might have an opportunity to with- 



62 S TO HIES of invention. 

draw whenever I thought proper. So great was my 
inclination to improve, that in a few months I rivalled 
the most skilful journeyman in the business, and began 
to reap some fruits from my labor. I continued, however, 
to play sometimes, through complaisance to my father, 
either upon the flute or the horn ; and I constantly drew 
tears and deep sighs from him every time he heard me. 
From a feeling of filial piety, I often gave him that satis- 
faction, endeavoring to persuade him that it gave me 
also particular pleasure. 

" Once when I was staying at Pisa, my father wrote 
to me in every letter exhorting me not to neglect my flute, 
in which he had taken so much pains to instruct me. 
Upon this, I entirely lost all inclination to return to him ; 
and to such a degree did I hate that abominable flute, ' 
that I thought myself in a sort of paradise in Pisa, where 
I never once played upon that instrument." 



At the age of twenty-three (in 1523), Cellini went to 
Rome, where he did much work for the Pope, Clem- 
ent VII. 

" About this time so dreadful an epidemic disease 
prevailed in Rome, that several thousands died every 
day Somewhat terrified at this calamity, I began to 
indulge myself in certain recreations, as the fancy took 
me. On holidays I amused myself with visiting the 
antiquities of that city, and sometimes took their figures 
in wax ; at other times, I made drawings of them. As 
these antiquities are all ruinous edifices, where a number 
of pigeons build their nests, I had a mind to divert myself 
among them with my fowling-piece, and often returned 



THE SIEGE OF ROME. 6$ 

home laden with pigeons of the largest size. But I never 
chose to put more than a single ball into my piece, and in 
this manner, being a good marksman, I procured a con- 
siderable quantity of game. The fowling-piece was, both 
on the inside and the outside, as bright as a looking-glass. 
I likewise made the powder as fine as the minutest dust, 
and in the use of it I discovered some of the most 
admirable secrets that ever were known till this time. 
When I. had charged my piece with a quantity of powder 
equal in weight to the fifth part of the ball, it carried two 
hundred paces, point blank. 

" While 1 was enjoying these pleasures, my spirits sud- 
denly revived. I no longer had my usual gloom, and 
I worked to more purpose than when my attention was 
wholly engrossed by business ; on the whole, my gun 
turned rather to my advantage than the contrary. 

" All Italy was now up in arms, and the Constable 
Bourbon, finding there were no troops in Rome, eagerly 
advanced with his army towards that capital. Upon the 
news of his approach, all the inhabitants took up arms. 
I engaged fifty brave young men to serve under me, and 
we were well paid and kindly treated. 

" The army of the Duke of Bourbon having already 
appeared before the walls of Rome, Alessandro del Bene 
requested that I would go with him to oppose the enemy. 
I complied, and, taking one of the stoutest youths with 
us, — we were afterwards joined by another, — we came 
up to the walls of Campo Santo, and there descried that 
great army which was employing every effort to enter the 
town at that part of the wall to which we had approached. 
Many young men were slain without the walls, where 
they fought with the utmost fury ; there was a remarkably 
thick mist. 



64 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

" Levelling my arquebuse where I saw the thickest 
crowd of the enemy, I discharged it with a deliberate aim 
at a person who seemed to be lifted above the rest ; 
but the mist prevented me from distinguishing whether 
he were on horseback or on foot. I then cautiously 
approached the walls, and perceived that there was an 
extraordinary confusion among the assailants, occasioned 
by our having shot the Duke of Bourbon ; he was, as 
I understood afterwards, that chief personage whom I 
saw raised above the rest." 



The Pope was induced by an enemy of Benvenuto, the 
Cardinal Salviati, to send for a rival goldsmith, Tobbia, to 
come to Rome. On his arrival both were summoned into 
the Pope's presence. 

" He then commanded each of us to draw a design for 
setting a unicorn's horn, the most beautiful that ever was 
seen, which had cost 17,000 ducats. As the Pope pro- 
posed making a present of it to King Francis, he chose to 
have it first richly adorned with gold ; so he employed us 
to draw the designs. When we had finished them we car- 
ried them to the Pope. Tobbia's design was in the form 
of a candlestick ; the horn was to enter it like a candle, 
and at the bottom of the candlestick he had represented 
four little unicorns' heads, — a most simple invention. 
As soon as I saw it, I could not contain myself so as to 
avoid smiling at the oddity of the conceit. The Pope, 
perceiving this, said, 'Let me see that design of yours.' 
It was the single head of a unicorn, fitted to receive the 
horn. I had made the most beautiful sort of head con- 
ceivable, for I drew it partly in the form of a horse's head, 



IMPRISONMENT. 65 

and partly in that of a hart's, adorned with the finest sort 
of wreaths and other devices ; so that no sooner was my 
design seen but the whole Court gave it the preference." 



Benvenuto continued to make many beautiful things 
for Pope Clement VII. up to the time of his death. 
That Pope was succeeded in the papal chair by Cardi- 
nal Farnese (Paul III.), on the 13th of October, 1534. 

" I had formed a resolution to set out for France, as well 
because I perceived that the Pope's favor was withdrawn 
from me by means of slanderers who misrepresented my 
services, as for fear that those of my enemies who had 
most influence might still do me some greater injury. For 
these reasons I was desirous to remove to some other 
country, and see whether fortune would there prove more 
favorable to me. Leaving Rome, I bent my course to 
Florence, whence I travelled on to Bologna, Venice, and 
Padua." 

He reached Paris, with two workmen whom he took 
with him from Rome, " without meeting any ill accident, 
and travelling on in uninterrupted mirth." But being dis- 
satisfied with his reception there, he returned instantly to 
Rome, where his fears were realized ; for he was arrested 
by order of the Pope, and made a prisoner in the Castle 
of St. Angel o. 

"This was the first time I ever knew the inside of a 
prison, and I was then in my thirty-seventh year. The 
constable of the Castle of St. Angelo was a countryman of 
mine, a Florentine, named Signor Giorgio Ugolini. This 
worthy gentleman behaved to me with the greatest polite- 
ness, permitting me to walk freely about the castle on my 
5 



66 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

parole of honor, and for no other reason but because he 
saw the severity and injustice of my treatment. 

" Finding I had been treated with so much rigor in 
the affair, I began to think seriously about my escape. 
I got my servants to bring me new thick sheets, and did 
not send back the dirty ones. Upon their asking me for 
them, I answered that I had given them away to some of 
the poor soldiers. I pulled all the straw out of the tick of 
my bed, and burned it ; for I had a chimney in the room 
where I lay. I then cut those sheets into a number of 
slips each about one third of a cubit in width ; and when 
I thought I had made a sufficient quantity to reach from 
the top to the bottom of the lofty tower of the Castle of St. 
Angelo, I told my servants that I had given away as much 
of my linen as I thought proper, and desired they would 
take care to bring me clean sheets, adding that I would 
constantly return the dirty ones. 

" The constable of the castle had annually a certain 
disorder which totally deprived him of his senses ; and 
when the fit came upon him, he was talkative to excess. 
Every year he had some different whim : one time he 
fancied himself metamorphosed into a pitcher of oil ; an- 
other time he thought himself a frog, and began to leap 
as such ; another time he imagined he was dead, and it 
was found necessary to humor his conceit by making a 
show of burying him ; thus he had every year some new 
frenzy. This year he fancied himself a bat, and when he 
went to take a walk, he sometimes made just such a noise 
as bats do ; he likewise used gestures with his hands and 
body, as if he were going to fly. His physicians and his 
old servants, who knew his disorder, procured him all the 
pleasures and amusements they could think of, and as 
they found he delighted greatly in my conversation, they 



ESCAPE. 67 

frequently came to me to conduct me to his apartment, 
where the poor man often detained me three or four hours 
chatting with him. 

" He asked me whether I had ever had a fancy to fly. 
I answered that I had always been very ready to attempt 
such things as men found most difficult ; and that with 
regard to flying, as God had given me a body admirably 
well calculated for running, I had even resolution enough 
to attempt to fly. He then proposed to me to explain 
how I could contrive it. I replied that when I attentively 
considered the several creatures that fly, and thought of 
effecting by art what they do by the force of nature, I did 
not find one so fit to imitate as the bat. As soon as the 
poor man heard mention made of a bat, he cried out aloud, 
1 It is very true ! a bat is the thing.' He then addressed 
himself to me, and said, ' Benvenuto, if you had the oppor- 
tunity, would you have the heart to make an attempt to 
fly ? ' I answered that if he would give me leave, I had 
courage enough to attempt to fly by means of a pair of 
wings waxed over. He said thereupon, ' I should like to 
see you fly ; but as the Pope has enjoined me to watch 
over you with the utmost care, I am resolved to keep you 
locked up with a hundred keys, that you may not slip out 
of my hands.' I said, before all present, \ Confine me as 
close as you please, I will contrive to make my escape, 
notwithstanding.' " 

At night, with a pair of pincers which he had secured, 
he removed the nails which fastened the plates of iron fixed 
upon the door, imitating with wax the heads of the nails 
he took out, so that their absence need not be seen. 

" One holiday evening, the constable being very much 
disordered, he scarce said anything else but that he was 
become a bat, and desired his people that if Benvenuto 



68 STORIES OF INVENTION: 

should happen to escape, they should take no notice of it, 
for he must soon catch me, as he should doubtless be 
better able to fly by night than I ; adding, ' Benvenuto is 
only a counterfeit bat, but I am a bat in real earnest.' 

" As I had formed a resolution to attempt my escape 
that night, I began by praying fervently to Almighty God 
that it would please him to assist me in the enterprise. 
Two hours before daybreak, I took the iron plates from 
the door with great trouble. I at last forced the door, and 
having taken with me my slips of linen, which I had rolled 
up in bundles with the utmost care, I went out and got 
upon the right side of the tower, and leaped upon two tiles 
of the roof with the greatest ease. I was in a white 
doublet, and had on a pair of white half-hose, over which 
I wore a pair of little light boots, that reached half-way 
up my legs, and in one of these I put my dagger. I then 
took the end of one of my bundles of long slips, which I 
had made out of the sheets of my bed, and fastened it to 
one of the tiles of the roof that happened to jut out. 
Then letting myself down gently, the whole weight of my 
body being sustained by my arm, I reached the ground. 
It was not a moonlight night, but the stars shone with 
resplendent lustre. When I had touched the ground, I 
first contemplated the great height which I had descended 
with so much courage, and then walked away in high joy, 
thinking I had recovered my liberty. But I soon found 
myself mistaken, for the constable had caused two pretty 
high walls to be erected on that side. I managed to fix 
a long pole against the first wall, and by the strength of 
my arms to climb to the top of it. I then fastened my 
other string of slips, and descended down the steep wall 

" There was still another one ; and in letting myself down, 
being unable to hold out any longer, I fell, and, striking 



RESCUE. 69 

my head, became quite insensible. I continued in that 
state about an hour and a half, as nearly as I can guess. 
The day beginning to break, the cool breeze that pre- 
cedes the rising of the sun brought me to my senses ; 
but I conceived a strange notion that I had been be- 
headed, and was then in purgatory. I recovered by 
degrees my strength and powers, and, perceiving that 
I had got out of the castle, I soon recollected all that 
had befallen me. Upon attempting to rise from the 
ground, I found that my right leg was broken, three 
inches above the heel, which threw me into a terrible con- 
sternation. Cutting with my dagger the part of my string 
of slips I had left, I bandaged my leg as well as I could. 
I then crept on my hands and knees towards the gate with 
my dagger in my hand, and effected my egress. It was 
about five hundred paces from the place where I had 
had my fall to the gate by which I entered the city. It 
was then broad daylight. As I happened to meet with a 
water-carrier, who had loaded his ass, and filled his ves- 
sels with water, I called to him, and begged he would put 
me upon the beast's back, and carry me to the landing- 
place of the steps of St. Peter's Church. I offered to give 
him a gold crown, and, so saying, I clapped my hand 
upon my purse, which was very well lined. The honest 
waterman instantly took me upon his back, and carried 
me to the steps before St. Peter's Church, where I desired 
him to leave me and run back to his ass. 

" Whilst I was crawling along upon all four, one of the 
.servants of Cardinal Cornaro knew me, and, running im- 
mediately to his master's apartment, awakened him out of 
his sleep, saying to him, ' My most reverend Lord, here is 
your jeweller, Benvenuto, who has made his escape out 
of the castle, and is crawling along upon all four, quite 



yo STORIES OF INVENTION 

besmeared with blood.' The cardinal, the moment he 
heard this, said to his servants, ' Run, and bring him 
hither to my apartment upon your backs.' When I came 
into his presence the good cardinal bade me fear nothing, 
and immediately sent for an excellent surgeon, who set 
the bone, bandaged my leg, and bled me. The cardinal 
then caused me to be put into a private apartment, and 
went directly to the Vatican, in order to intercede in my 
behalf with the Pope. 

" Meanwhile the report of my escape made a great 
noise all over Rome ; for the long string of sheeting 
fastened to the top of the lofty tower of the castle had 
excited attention, and the inhabitants ran in crowds to 
behold the sight. By this time the frenzy of the consta- 
ble had reached its highest pitch ; he wanted, in spite 
of all his servants, to fly from the same tower himself, 
declaring there was but one way to retake me, and 
that was to fly after me. He caused himself to be car- 
ried into the presence of his Holiness, and began a ter- 
rible outcry, saying that I had promised him, upon my 
honor, that I would not fly away, and had flown away 
notwithstanding." 

The Cardinal Cornaro, however, and others interceded 
for Benvenuto with the Pope, on account of his cour- 
age, and the extraordinary efforts of his ingenuity, which 
seemed to surpass human capacity. The Pope said he 
had intended to keep him near his person, and to prevent 
him from returning to France, adding, " I am concerned 
to hear of his sufferings, however. Bid him take care of 
his health ; and when he is thoroughly recovered, it shall 
be my study to make him some amends for his past 
troubles." He was visited by young and old, persons of 
all ranks. 



VISIT FROM KING FRANCIS. J7I 

After this, Benvenuto went once more to France, where 
he was received with high consideration by Francis I., 
who gave him, for his home and workshop in Paris, a 
large old castle called the Nesle, of a triangular form, 
close to the walls of the city. Here, with workmen 
brought with him from Italy, he began many great works. 

" Being thus become a favorite of the king, I was uni- 
versally admired. As soon as I had received silver to 
make it of, I began to work on the statue of Jupiter, and 
took into my service several journeymen. We worked 
day and night with the utmost assiduity, insomuch that, 
having finished Jupiter, Vulcan, and Mars in earth, and 
Jupiter being pretty forward in silver, my shop began to 
make a grand show. Just about this time the king made 
his appearance at Paris, and I went to pay my respects to 
him. When his Majesty saw me, he called to me in high 
spirits, and asked me whether I had anything curious to 
show him at my shop, for he intended to call there. I 
told him of all I had done, and he expressed an earnest 
desire to see my performances ; and after dinner that day, 
all the nobility belonging to the Court of France repaired 
to my shop. 

" I had just come home, and was beginning to work, when 
the king made his appearance at my castle gate. Upon 
hearing the sound of so many hammers, he commanded 
his retinue to be silent. All my people were at work, so 
that the king came upon us quite unexpectedly. As he 
entered the saloon, the first object he perceived was my- 
self with a large piece of plate in my hand, which was to 
make the body of Jupiter ; another was employed on the 
head, another again on the legs, so that the shop re- 
sounded with the beating of hammers. His Majesty was 
highly pleased, and returned to his palace, after having 



72 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

conferred so many favors on me that it would be tedious 
to enumerate them. 

" Having with the utmost diligence finished the beau- 
tiful statue of Jupiter, with its gilt pedestal, I placed it 
upon a wooden socle, which scarce made any appearance, 
and within that socle I fixed four little globes of wood, 
which were more than half hidden in their sockets, and so 
contrived that a little child could with the utmost ease 
move this statue of Jupiter backwards and forwards, and 
turn it about. I took it with me to Fontainebleau, where 
the King then resided. I was told to put it in the gallery, 
— a place which might be called a corridor, about two 
hundred paces long, adorned and enriched with pictures 
and pieces of sculpture, amongst them some of the finest 
imitations of the antique statues of Rome. Here also I 
introduced my Jupiter ; and when I saw this great display 
of the wonders of art, I said to myself, ' This is like pass- 
ing between the pikes of the enemy ; Heaven protect me 
from all danger ! ' 

" This figure of Jupiter had a thunderbolt in his right 
hand, and by his attitude seemed to be just going to 
throw it ; in his left I had placed a globe, and amongst 
the flames I had with great dexterity put a piece of white 
torch. On the approach of night I lighted the torch in 
the hand of Jupiter ; and as it was raised somewhat above 
his head, the light fell upon the statue, and caused it to ap- 
pear to much greater advantage than it would otherwise have 
done. When I saw his Majesty enter with several great 
lords and noblemen, I ordered my boy to push the statue 
before him, and this motion, being made with admirable 
contrivance, caused it to appear alive ; thus the other fig- 
ures in the gallery were left somewhat behind, and the eyes 
of all the beholders were first struck with my performance. 



STATUE OF PERSEUS. 73 

" The king immediately cried out : ' This is one of the 
finest productions of art that ever was beheld. I, who take 
pleasure in such things and understand them, could never 
have conceived a piece of work the hundredth part so 
beautiful ! ' " 



Cellini, however, who was exacting and sensitive, be- 
came dissatisfied with the treatment of the King of 
France ; and, leaving his workmen at his tower of the 
Nesle, he returned to Italy, and engaged in the service of 
Cosmo de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who assigned 
him a house to work in. 

His chief performance here was a bronze statue of 
Perseus for the fine square before the Palazzo Vecchio. 
After many drawbacks, doubts, and difficulties, — 

" I now took courage, resolving to depend on myself, 
and banished all those thoughts which from time to time 
occasioned me great inquietude, and made me sorely re- 
pent my ever having quitted France. I still flattered my- 
self that if I could but finish my statue of Perseus, all 
my labors would be converted to delight, and meet with 
a glorious and happy reward. 

"This statue was intended to be of bronze, five ells 
in height, of one piece, and hollow. I first formed my 
model of clay, more slender than the statue was intended 
to be. I then baked it, and covered it with wax of the 
thickness of a finger, which I modelled into the perfect 
form of the statue. In order to effect in concave what 
the wax represented in convex, I covered the wax with 
clay, and baked this second covering. Thus, the wax 
dissolving, and escaping by fissures left open for the pur- 
pose, I obtained, between the first model and the second 



74 STORIES OF INVENTION-. 

covering, a space for the introduction of the metal. In 
order to introduce the bronze without moving the first 
model, I placed the model in a pit dug under the furnace, 
and by means of pipes and apertures in the model itself, 
I meant to introduce the liquid metal. 

" After I had made its coat of earth, covered it well, and 
bound it properly with irons, I began by means of a slow 
fire to draw off the wax, which melted away by many 
vent-holes, — for the more of these are made, the better 
the moulds are filled ; and when I had entirely stripped 
off the wax, I made a sort of fence round my Perseus, 
that is, round the mould, of bricks, piling them one upon 
another, and leaving several vacuities for the fire to exhale 
at. I next began gradually to put on the wood, and kept 
a constant fire for two days and two nights, till, the wax 
being quite off and the mould well baked, I began to dig 
a hole to bury my mould in, and observed all those fine 
methods of proceeding that are proscribed by our art. 
When I had completely dug my hole, I took my mould, 
and by means of levers and strong cables directed it with 
care, and suspended it a cubit above the level of the 
furnace, so that it hung exactly in the middle of the hole. 
I then let it gently down to the very bottom of the 
furnace, and placed it with all the care and exactness I 
possibly could. After I had finished this part of my task 
I began to make a covering of the very earth I had taken 
off; and in proportion as I raised the earth, I made vents 
for it, of a sort of tubes of baked earth, generally used for 
conduits, and other things of a similar nature. 

" I had caused my furnace to be filled with several 
pieces of brass and bronze, and heaped them upon one 
another in the manner taught us by our art, taking par- 
ticular care to leave a passage for the flames, that the 



THE STATUE CAST 75 

metal might the sooner assume its color, and dissolve into 
a fluid. Thus, with great alacrity, I excited my men to 
lay on the pine-wood, which, because of the oiliness of 
the resinous matter that oozes from the pine-tree and that 
my furnace was admirably well made, burned at such a 
rate that I was continually obliged to run to and fro, 
which greatly fatigued me. I, however, bore, the hard- 
ship ; but, to add to my misfortune, the shop took fire, 
and we were all very much afraid that the roof would fall 
in and crush us. From another quarter, that is, from the 
garden, the sky poured in so much rain and wind that 
it cooled my furnace. 

" Thus did I continue to struggle with these cross acci- 
dents for several hours, and exerted myself to such a 
degree that my constitution, though robust, could no 
longer bear such severe hardship, and I was suddenly 
attacked by a most violent intermitting fever ; in short, 
I was so ill that I found myself under a necessity of lying 
down upon my bed. This gave me great concern, but 
it was unavoidable. I thereupon addressed myself to 
my assistants, who were about ten in number, saying 
to them : ' Be careful to observe the method which I have 
shown you, and use all possible expedition ; for the metal 
will soon be ready. You cannot mistake ; these two 
worthy men here will quickly make the orifices. With two 
such directors you can certainly contrive to pour out the 
hot metal, and I have no doubt but my mould will be 
filled completely. I find myself extremely ill, and really 
believe that in a few hours this severe disorder will put 
an end to my life.' Thus I left them in great sorrow, 
and went to bed. I then ordered the maids to carry 
victuals and drink into the shop for all the men, and told 
them I did not expect to live till the next morning. In 



7 '6 STORIES OF invention: 

this manner did I continue for two hours in a violent 
fever, which I every moment perceived to increase, and 
I was incessantly crying out, ' I am dying, I am dying.' 

" My housekeeper was one of the most sensible and 
affectionate women in the world. She rebuked me for 
giving way to vain fears, and at the same time attended 
me with the greatest kindness and care imaginable ; how- 
ever, seeing me so very ill, and terrified to such a degree, 
she could not contain herself, but shed a flood of tears, 
which she endeavored to conceal from me. Whilst we 
were both in this deep affliction, I perceived a man enter 
the room, who in his person appeared to be as crooked 
and distorted as a great S, and began to express himself 
in these terms, in a dismal and melancholy voice : ' Alas, 
poor Benvenuto, your work is spoiled, and the misfortune 
admits of no remedy.' 

"No sooner had I heard the words uttered by this 
messenger of evil, but I cried out so loud that my voice 
might be heard to the skies, and got out of bed. I 
began immediately to dress, and, giving plenty of kicks 
and cuffs to the maidservants and the boy as they offered 
to help me on with my clothes, I complained bit- 
terly in these terms : ' Oh, you envious and treacherous 
wretches, this is a piece of villany contrived on purpose ; 
but. I will sift it to the bottom, and before I die give such 
proofs who I am as shall not foil to astonish the whole 
world.' Having huddled on my clothes, I went, with a 
mind boding evil, to the shop, where I found all those 
whom I had left so alert and in such high spirits, stand- 
ing in the utmost confusion and astonishment. I there- 
upon addressed them thus : ' Listen, all of you, to what 
I am going to say ; and since you either would not or 
could not follow the method I pointed out, obey me now 



THE CRISIS. J*] 

that I am present. My work is before us ; and let none 
of you offer to oppose or contradict me, for such cases 
as this require activity and not counsel.' Hereupon one 
of them had the assurance to say to me, ' Look you, 
Benvenuto, you have undertaken a work which our art 
cannot compass, and which is not to be effected by 
human power.' 

" Hearing these words, I turned round in such a pas- 
sion, and seemed so bent upon mischief, that both he and 
all the rest unanimously cried out to me, ' Give your orders, 
and we will all second you in whatever you command ; we 
will assist you as long as we have breath in our bodies.' 
These kind and affectionate words they uttered, as I 
firmly believe, in a persuasion that I was upon the point 
of expiring. I went directly to examine the furnace, and 
saw all the metal in it concreted. I thereupon ordered 
two of the helpers to step over the way to a butcher for 
a load of young oak which had been above a year drying, 
which had been already offered to me. 

" Upon his bringing me the first bundles of it, I began 
to fill the grate. This sort of oak makes a brisker fire 
than any other wood whatever; but the wood of elder- 
trees and pine-trees is used in casting artillery, because 
it makes a mild and gentle fire. As soon as the con- 
creted metal felt the power of this violent fire, it began 
to brighten and glitter. In another quarter I made them 
hurry the tubes with all possible expedition, and sent 
some of them to the roof of the house to take care of the 
fire, which through the great violence of the wind had 
acquired new force ; and towards the garden I had caused 
some tables with pieces of tapestry and old clothes to be 
placed in order to shelter me from the rain. As soon as 
I had applied the proper remedy to each evil, I with a 



78 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

loud voice cried out to my men to bestir themselves and 
lend a helping hand ; so that when they saw that the con- 
creted metal began to melt again, the whole body obeyed 
me with such zeal and alacrity that every man did the 
work of three. Then I caused a mass of pewter weighing 
about sixty pounds to be thrown upon the metal in the 
furnace, which, with the other helps, as the brisk wood- 
fire, and stirring it sometimes with iron and sometimes 
with long poles, soon became completely dissolved. 
Finding that, contrary to the opinion of my ignorant 
assistants, I had effected what seemed as difficult to 
raise as the dead, I recovered my vigor to such a degree 
that I no longer perceived whether I had any fever, nor 
had I the least apprehension of death. 

"Suddenly a loud noise was heard, and a glittering 
of fire flashed before our eyes, as if it had been the dart- 
ing of a thunderbolt. Upon the appearance of this ex- 
traordinary phenomenon terror seized upon all present, 
and none more than myself. This tremendous noise 
being over, we began to stare at each other, and per- 
ceived that the cover of the furnace had burst and flown 
off, so that the bronze began to run. 

" I immediately caused the mouths of my mould to be 
opened ; but, finding that the metal did not run with its 
usual velocity, and apprehending that the cause of it was 
that the fusibility of the metal was injured by the violence 
of the fire, I ordered all my dishes and porringers, 
which were in number about two hundred, to be placed 
one by one before my tubes, and part of them to be 
thrown into the furnace ; upon which all present per- 
ceived that my mould was filling : they now with joy and 
alacrity assisted and obeyed me. I, for my part, was 
sometimes in one place, sometimes in another, giving 



VICTORY. 79 

my directions and assisting my men, before whom I of- 
fered up this prayer : ' O God, I address myself to thee. 
I acknowledge in gratitude this mercy, that my mould 
has been filled. I fall prostrate before thee, and with my 
whole heart return thanks to thy divine majesty.' 

" My prayer being over, I took a plate of meat which 
stood upon a little bench, and ate with a great appetite. 
I then drank with all my journeymen and assistants, and 
went joyful and in good health to bed ; for there were still 
two hours of night, and I rested as well as if I had been 
troubled with no disorder. 

" My good housekeeper, without my having given any 
orders, had provided a good capon for my dinner. When 
I arose, which was not till about noon, she accosted me in 
high spirits, and said merrily, ' Is this the man that thought 
himself dying? It is my firm belief that the cuffs and 
kicks you gave us last night when you were quite frantic 
and possessed, frightened away your fever, which, appre- 
hending you should fall upon it in the same manner, took 
to flight.' So my whole poor family, having got over such 
panics and hardships, without delay procured earthen ves- 
sels to supply the place of the pewter dishes and porrin- 
gers, and we all dined together very cheerfully ; indeed, 
I do not remember having ever in my life eaten a meal 
with greater satisfaction or a better appetite. After din- 
ner, all those who had assisted me in my work came and 
congratulated me upon what had happened, returned 
thanks to the Divine Being for having interposed so merci- 
fully in our behalf, and declared that they had in theory and 
practice learnt such things as were judged impossible by 
other masters. I thereupon thought it allowable to boast a 
little of my knowledge and skill in this fine art, and, pull- 
ing out my purse, satisfied all my workmen for their labor. 



80 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

" Having left my work to cool during two days after it 
was cast, I began gradually to uncover it. I first of all 
found the Medusa's head, which had come out admirably 
by the assistance of the vents. I proceeded to uncover 
the rest, and found that the other head — I mean that of 
Perseus — was likewise come out perfectly well. I went 
on uncovering it with great success, and found every part 
turn out to admiration, till I reached the foot of the 
right leg, which supports the figure. I found that not only 
the toes were wanting, but part of the foot itself, so that 
there was almost one half deficient. This occasioned me 
some new trouble ; but I was not displeased at it, as I 
had expected this very thing. 

" It pleased God that as soon as ever my work, although 
still unfinished, was seen by the populace, they set up so 
loud a shout of applause, that I began to be somewhat 
comforted for the mortifications I had undergone ; and 
there were sonnets in my praise every day upon the gate, 
the language of which was extremely elegant and poetical. 
The very day on which I exhibited my work, there were 
above twenty sonnets set up, containing the most hyper- 
bolical praises of it. Even after I had covered it again, 
every day a number of verses, with Latin odes and Greek 
poems, were published on the occasion, — for it was then 
vacation at the University of Pisa, and all the learned men 
and scholars belonging to that place vied with each other 
in writing encomiums on my performance. But what gave 
me the highest satisfaction was that even those of the pro- 
fession — I mean statuaries and painters — emulated each 
other in commending me. In fact, I was so highly praised, 
and in so elegant a style, that it afforded me some allevi- 
ation for my past mortification and troubles, and I made 
all the haste I could to put the last hand to my statue. 



CELLINI'S DEATH. 8 1 

" At last, as it pleased the Almighty, I completely fin- 
ished my work, and on a Thursday morning exhibited it 
fully. Just before the break of day so great a crowd gath- 
ered about it, that it is almost impossible for me to give 
the reader an idea of their number ; and they all seemed 
to vie with each other who should praise it most. The 
duke stood at a lower window of the palace, just over the 
gate, and, being half concealed within side, heard all that 
was said concerning the work. After he had listened sev- 
eral hours, he left the window highly pleased, and sent 
me this message : ' Go to Benvenuto, and tell him from 
me that he has given me higher satisfaction than I ever 
expected. Let him know at the same time that I shall 
reward him in such a manner as will excite his surprise.' " 



The manuscript of Benvenuto's Life is not carried much 
farther. The narrative breaks off abruptly in 1562, when 
Cellini was in the sixty-second year of his age. He does 
not appear from this time to have been engaged in any 
work of much importance. After the execution of his 
grand achievement of the Perseus, the narrative of his life 
seems to have been the most successful of all the labors 
of his declining years. 

On the 15 th day of February, 1570, this extraordinary 
man died. He was buried, by his own direction, with great 
funeral pomp. A monk who had been charged to com- 
pose the funeral sermon, in praise both of his life and 
works and of his excellent moral qualities, mounted the 
pulpit and delivered a discourse which was highly approved 
by the whole academy and by the people. They struggled 
to enter the chapter, as well to see the body of Benve- 
nuto as to hear the commendation of his good qualities. 
6 



BERNARD PALISSY. 

n^WO or three of the girls had dabbled a little in paint- 
A ing on porcelain, and several of them had become in- 
terested in various sorts of pottery. Mabel had been at 
Newburyport, on a visit with some friends who had a pot- 
ter's wheel of their own ; and she had turned for herself, 
and had had baked, some vases and dishes which she 
had brought home with her. 

This tempted them all to make a party, in which sev- 
eral of the boys joined, to go to the Art Museum and see 
the exquisite pottery there, of different sorts, ancient and 
modern. There they met one of the gentlemen of a 
large firm of dealers in keramics ; and he asked them to 
go through their magnificent establishment, and see the 
collection, which is one of great beauty. It shows sev- 
eral of the finest styles of manufacture in very choice 
specimens. 

This prepared them to see Japanese work. And when 
Uncle Fritz heard of this, he asked Professor Morse, of 
Salem, if he would show them his marvellous collection of 
Japanese pottery. Professor Morse lived in Japan under 
very favorable auspices, and he made there a wonderful 
collection of the work of the very best artists. So five or 
six of the young people went down to Salem, at his very 
kind invitation, and saw there what is one of the finest 
collections in the world. 



BERNARD PA USSY. 83 

All this interested them in what now receives a great 
deal of attention, the manufacture and ornament of pot- 
tery. The word keramics is a word recently added to the 
English language to express the art of making pottery and 
of ornamenting it. 

When Uncle Fritz found that they really wanted to 
know about such things, he arranged that for one after- 
noon they should read about 



BERNARD PALISSY THE POTTER. 

Bernard Palissy was born, about 15 10, in the little town 
of Biron, in Perigord, France. He became not only a 
great artist, but a learned physician, and a writer of merit. 

Born of poor parents of the working-class, he had to 
learn some trade, and early applied himself to working 
glass, not as a glazier, but staining it and cutting it up in 
little bits, to be joined together with lead for the colored 
windows so much used in churches. This was purely 
mechanical work ; but Bernard's ambition led him to study 
drawing and color, that he might himself design and 
execute, in glass, scenes from the Bible and lives of the 
saints, such as he saw done by his superiors. 

When he was old enough, curious to see the world and 
learn new things, he took a journey on foot through sev- 
eral provinces of France, by observation thus supplying the 
defects of his early education, and reaping a rich harvest 
of facts and ideas, which developed the qualities of his 
intelligence. 

It was at this time that the Renaissance in Art was mak- 
ing itself felt throughout Europe. Francis I. of France 
encouraged all forms of good work by his patronage ; 



84 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

and wherever he went the young Palissy was animated 
and inspired by the sight of beautiful things. 

Faience, an elegant kind of pottery, attracted his atten- 
tion. This appeared first in the fourteenth century. The 
Arabs had long known the art of making tiles of clay, 
enamelled and richly ornamented. They brought it into 
Spain, as is shown in the decorations of the Alhambra at 
Seville and elsewhere. Lucca della Robbia in Italy first 
brought the art to perfection, by making figures and 
groups of figures in high relief, of baked clay covered 
with shining enamel, white, tinted with various colors. 
The kind of work called majolica differed from the earlier 
faience by some changes in the material used for the 
enamel. In the middle of the sixteenth century remark- 
able historical paintings were executed in faience, upon 
huge plaques. All the cities of Italy vied with each other 
in producing wonders in this sort of work ; it is from one 
of them, Faenza, that it takes its name. The method 
of making the enamel was a deep secret ; but Bernard 
Palissy, with long patience and after many failures, suc- 
ceeded in discovering it, — or, rather, in inventing for 
himself a new method, which in some respects excelled 
the old. 

Palissy was the author of several essays, or " Dis- 
courses j " and from one of these, written in quaint old 
French, we have his own account of his invention. 

He married and settled down in the year 1539 with 
a good income from his intelligent industry. He had a 
pleasant little house in the country, where, as he says, u I 
could rejoice in the sight of green hills, where were feed- 
ing and gambolling lambs, sheep, and goats." 

An incident, apparently slight, disturbed this placid do- 
mestic happiness. He came across a cup of enamelled 



ENAMEL. 85 

pottery, doubtless from Italy. "This cup/' he says, "was 
of such beauty, that, from the moment I saw it, I entered 
into a dispute with myself as to how it could have been 
made." 

Enamel is nothing more than a kind of glaze colored 
.vith metallic acids, and rendered opaque by the mixture 
of a certain quantity of tin. It is usually spread upon 
metal, when only it is properly called enamel ; but this 
glaze can also be put upon earthenware. It makes 
vessels water-tight, and gives them brilliancy of surface. 
To find out how to do this was to make a revolution in 
the keramic art. 

In France, in the sixteenth century, the only vessels, 
such as jugs or vases, were made either of metal, wood, 
or coarse porous pottery, through which water could pene- 
trate ; like the goulehs of the Arabs, or the cantaras of the 
Moors, which are still used for fresh water to advantage, 
since the evaporation of the drops keeps the water cold. 

Many attempts had been made to imitate the beautiful 
and costly vases of China ; but no one succeeded until the 
potters of Italy found out how to make faience. The 
discovery was hailed as a most valuable one. The princes 
who owned the works guarded their secret with jealous 
care, — to betray it would have been punished by death ; 
so that Bernard Palissy had no hope of being taught how 
it was done, even if he should go to the places in Italy 
where the work was carried on. 

"But," he says, "what others had found out, I might 
also discover ; and if I could once make myself master of 
the art of glazing, I felt sure I could elevate pottery to a 
degree of perfection as yet unknown. What a glory for 
my name, what a benefit to France, if I could establish 
this industry here in my own land ! " 



86 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

He turned and turned the cup in his fingers, admiring 
the brilliant surface. " Yes," he said at last ; " it shall be 
so, for I choose ! I have already studied the subject. 
I will work still harder, and reach my aim at last." 

Exceptional determination of character was needed for 
such an object. Palissy knew nothing about the compo- 
nent parts of enamels ; he had never even seen the pro- 
cess of baking clay, and he had to begin with the very 
simplest investigations. To study the different kinds of 
earth and clay, to acquire the arts of moulding and turn- 
ing, and to gain some knowledge of chemistry, all these 
were necessary. But he did not flinch, and pursued his 
idea with indomitable perseverance. 

" Moving only by chance," he says, "like a man grop- 
ing in the dark, I made a collection of all the different 
substances which seemed at all likely to make enamel, 
and I pounded them up fine ; then I bought earthen 
pots, broke them into small bits, numbered these pieces, 
and spread over each of them a different combination of 
materials. Now I had to have a furnace in which to bake 
my experiments. I had no idea how furnaces were usu- 
ally made j so I invented one of my own, and set it up. 
But I had no idea how much heat was required to melt 
enamels, — perhaps I heated my furnace too much, per- 
haps not enough ; sometimes my ingredients were all 
burned up, sometimes they melted not at all ; or else some 
were turned to coal, while others remained undisturbed 
by the action of the fire." 

Meanwhile the resources of the unlucky workman were 
fast diminishing ; for he had abandoned his usual work, by 
which he earned his living, and kept making new furnaces, 
" with great expense and trouble, and a great consumption 
of time and firewood." 



FAILURES. 8? 

This state of affairs much displeased his wife, who com- 
plained bitterly, and tried to divert her husband from an 
occupation which earned for him nothing but disappoint- 
ment. The cheerful little household changed its aspect ; 
the children were no longer well-dressed, and the shabby 
furniture and empty cupboards betrayed the decay which 
was falling upon the family. The father saw with pro- 
found grief the wants of his household ; but success 
seemed ever so near to him, that he could not bear to give 
it up. His hope at that time was but a mirage ; and for 
long afterwards, in this struggle between intelligence and 
the antagonism of material things, ill fortune kept the 
upper hand. 

One day, tired out by his failures, it occurred to him 
that a man brought up to baking pottery would know 
how to bake his specimens better than he could. 

" I covered three or four hundred bits of broken vase 
with different compounds, and sent them to a fabrique 
about a mile and a half from my house. The potters 
consented to put my patterns with their batch for the oven. 
Full of impatience, I awaited the result of this experi- 
ment. I was on hand when my specimens came out. I 
looked them anxiously all over ; not one was successful ! 

" The heat had not been strong enough, but I did not 
know this ; I saw only one more useless expense of 
money. One of the workmen came to me and said, ' You 
will never make anything out of this ; you had better go 
back to your own business.' " 

Palissy shook his head ; he had still in his possession 
some few valuable articles, souvenirs of happier days, 
which he could sell to renew his experiments. In spite 
of the reproaches of his wife, he bought more ingredients 
and more earthenware, and made new combinations. 



88 STORIES of invention; 

Failure again ! However, he would not be beaten. 
Some friends lent him a little money ; he sat up at night 
to make new mixtures of different substances, all prepared 
with such care that he felt sure some of them must be 
good. Then he carried them again to the potters, whom 
he urged to the greatest care. They only shrugged their 
shoulders, and called him " crack brain ; " and when the 
batch was done, they brought the results to Palissy with 
jeers. Some of the pieces were dirty white ; others green, 
red, or smoked by the fire ; but all alike in being dull 
and worthless. 

It was over. Discouragement took possession of Pa- 
lissy. " I returned home," he says, " full of confusion 
and sadness. Others might seek the secret of enamels. 
I must set to work and earn money to pay my debts 
and get bread for the family." 

Most luckily for him at this time, a task was given him 
by government, for which he was well suited, and which 
brought him good pay. The king, Francis I., having 
had, like many another sovereign, some difficulty with his 
faithful subjects in the matter of imposts, now found it 
necessary to make a new regulation of taxes ; and for this, 
among other things, an inspection of the salt marshes on 
the coasts of France was needed, in order to name the 
right sums for taxation, and a knowledge of arithmetic 
was required as well. Palissy was appointed ; and to the 
great delight of his family, who thought that his mind 
would now be forever diverted from the search for enamel, 
he set forth to explore the islands and the shores of France. 
He drew admirable outlines of the forms of the salt marshes, 
and wrote with eloquence upon the sublimity of the sea. 

Ease and comfort came back. His task was ended ; 
but debts were paid, and plenty of money remained. 



NEW EXPERIMENTS. 89 

The first thing he saw on returning home, alas ! was the 
cup, — his joy and despair. " How beautiful it is! how 
brilliant ! " he exclaimed ; and once more he threw him- 
self into the pursuit of the elusive enamel. 

It was easy to see that the so much admired faience of 
Italy was simply common baked clay, covered with some 
substance glazed by heat, but so composed as to adhere 
to the surface after it had cooled. But what substance ? 
He had tried all sorts of materials; why had none of 
them melted? Palissy at length decided that the fault 
had been in using the common potter's furnace. Since 
the materials were to be vitrified by the process, they 
should be baked like glass. He broke up three dozen 
pots, pounded up a great quantity of different ingredients, 
and spread them with a brush on the fragments; then he 
carried them to the nearest glass-works. He was allowed 
to superintend the baking himself; he put the specimens 
in the oven, and passed the night attending the fire. In 
the morning he took them out. " Oh, joy ! Some of the 
compounds had begun to melt ; there was no perfect 
glaze, only a sign that I was on the right road." 

It was, however, still a long and weary one. After two 
more years, Palissy was still far from the discovery of en- 
amelling, but during this time he was acquiring much 
knowledge. From a simple workman he had become a 
learned chemist. He says himself, " The mistakes I made 
in combining my enamels taught me more than the things 
which came right of themselves." 

There came a time, which he had once more resolved 
should be the last, when he repaired to the glass-works, 
accompanied by a man loaded with more than three hun- 
dred different patterns on bits of pottery. For four hours 
Bernard gloomily watched the progress of baking. Sud- 



90 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

denly he started in surprise. Did his eyes deceive him? 
No ! it was no illusion. One of the pieces in the furnace 
was covered with a brilliant glazing, white, polished, ex- 
cellent. Palissy 's joy was immense. " I thought I had 
become a new creature," he says. "The enamel was 
found ; France enriched by a new discovery." 

Palissy now hastened to undertake a whole vase. For 
many and large pieces there was not room enough at his 
disposition in the ovens of the glass-works. He did not 
worry about that, for he was quite sure he could con- 
struct one of his own. He decided, too, at once to 
model and fashion his own vases ; for those which he 
bought of the potters, made of coarse and heavy forms, 
no longer suited his ambition. He now designed forms, 
turned and modelled them himself. Thus passed seven 
or eight months. At last his vases were done, and he 
admired with pride the pure forms given to the clay by 
his hands. But his money was giving out again, and his 
furnace was not yet built. As he had nothing to pay for 
the work, he did all the work himself, — went after bricks 
and brought them himself on his back, and then built and 
plastered with his own hands. The neighbors looked on 
in pity and ridicule. " Look," they said, " at Master 
Bernard 1 He might live at his ease, and yet he makes 
a beast of burden of himself ! " 

Palissy minded their sarcasms not at all. His furnace 
was finished in good time, and the first baking of the clay 
succeeded perfectly. Now the pottery was to be covered 
with his new enamel. Time pressed, for in a few days 
there would be no more bread in the house for his chil- 
dren. For a long time he had been living on credit, but 
now the butcher and baker refused to furnish anything 
more. All about him he saw only unfriendly faces ; every 



PALISSY' S TRIALS. 9 1 

one treated him as a fool. " Let him die of hunger/' 
they said, " since he will not listen to reason." 

His wife was the worst of all. She failed to see any 
heroism in the obstinacy or perseverance of her hus- 
band, — no wonder, perhaps, with the sight of her suffering 
children before her eyes. She went about reciting her 
misfortunes to all the neighborhood, very unwisely, as she 
thus ruined the credit of her husband, his last and only 
resource. 

Palissy was already worn out by so much manual la- 
bor, to which he was little accustomed ; nevertheless, he 
worked by night, and all night long, to pound up and 
prepare the materials for his white enamel, and to spread 
it upon his vases. A report went abroad, caused by the 
sight of his lamp constantly burning, that he was trying 
to coin counterfeit money. He was suspected, despised, 
and avoided, and went about the streets hanging his head 
because he had no answer to make to his accusers. 

The moment which was to decide his life arrived. The 
vases were placed in the furnace, and for six continuous 
days and nights he plied the glowing fire with fuel. The 
heat was intolerable ; but the enamel resisted, nothing 
would melt, and he was forced to recognize that there 
was too little of the glazing substance in the combination 
to vitrify the others. He set to work to mix another 
compound, but his vases were spoiled ; he borrowed a 
few common ones from the pottery. During all this 
delay he did not dare to let the fire go out, it would take 
so much wood to start it again. Once more the newly 
covered pots were placed in the intense furnace ; in three 
or four hours the test would be completed. Palissy per- 
ceived with terror that his fuel was giving out. He ran 
to his garden, tore up fences, and cut down trees which 



92 STORIES OF INVEN1I0N. 

he had planted himself, and threw all these into the twa 
yawning mouths of the furnace. Not enough ! He went 
into the house, and seized tables, chairs, and bureaus ; but 
the house was but poorly furnished, and contained but 
little to feed the flames. Palissy returned. The rooms 
were empty, there was absolutely nothing more to take ; 
then he fell to pulling up the planks of the floor. His 
wife, frightened to death, stood still and let him go on. 
The neighbors ran in, at the sound of the axe, and said, 
" He must be a fool ! " 

But soon pity changed to admiration. When Palissy 
took the vases from the furnace, the common pots which 
all had seen before dull and coarse, were of a clear pearly 
white, covered with brilliant polish. 

So much emotion and fatigue had told upon the robust 
constitution of Palissy. " I was," he says, " all used up 
and dried up on account of such toil, and the heat of the 
furnace. It was more than a month since I had had a 
dry shirt on my body, and I felt as if I had reached the 
door of the sepulchre." 

In spite of the success which he had now attained, our 
potter had by no means reached the end of his misfor- 
tunes. He sold his vases, but could not get much for 
them, as there were but a few, of poor shapes ; for those 
which he had modelled himself had all failed to take the 
enamel, and the successful ones were only common things, 
bought on credit. The small sum which he got by selling 
)hem was not enough by any means to cover his expenses, 
pay his debts, and restore order to the house from which 
pretty much everything was burned up for firewood in 
his furnace. 

However, he was supported and happy in the thought 
of his success. He said to himself: " Why be sad, when 



ONCE MORE. 93 

you have found what you were seeking for? Go on 
working, and you will put your enemies to shame." 

Once more he succeeded in borrowing a little money. 
He hired a man to help him ; and for want of funds, he 
paid this man by giving him all his own good clothes, 
while he went himself in rags. The furnace he had made 
was coming to pieces on account of the intense heat he 
had maintained in it for six days and nights during his 
last experiment. He pulled it to pieces with his own 
hands, working with fingers bleeding and bound up in 
bandages. Then he fetched water, sand, lime, and stone, 
and built by himself a new furnace, " without any help or 
any repose. A feverish resolution doubled my strength, 
and made me capable of doing things which I should 
have imagined impossible." 

This time the oven heats admirably, the enamels ap- 
pear to be melting. Palissy goes to rest, and dreams of 
his new vases, which must bring enough to pay all his 
debts ; his impatient creditors come in the morning to 
see the things taken from the furnace. Palissy receives 
them joyfully ; he would like to invite the whole town. 

When the pieces came out of the oven, they were 
shining and beautiful; but — always but! — an accident 
had deprived them of all value. Little stones, which 
formed a part of the mortar with which the furnace was 
built, had burst with the heat, and spattered the enamel 
all over with sharp fragments cutting like a razor, entirely 
spoiling it of course. Still, the vases were so lovely in 
form, and the glaze was so beautiful, that several people 
offered to buy them if they could have them cheap. This 
the proud potter would not bear. Seizing the vases, he 
dashed them to the ground ; then utterly worn out, he 
went into the house and threw himself on the bed. His 



94 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

wife followed him, and covered him with reproaches for thus 
wasting the chance of making a few francs for the family. 
Soon he recovered his elasticity, reflecting " that a man 
who has tumbled into a ditch has but one duty, and that 
is to try to get out of it." 

He now set to work at his old business of painting 
upon glass, and after several months had earned enough 
to start another batch of vases. Of these, two or three 
were successful and sold to advantage ; the rest were 
spoiled by ashes which fell upon the enamel in the furnace 
while it was soft. He therefore invented what he called 
a " lantern " of baked clay, to put over the vases to pro- 
tect them in baking. This expedient proved so good 
that it is still used. 

The enamel once discovered, it would be supposed 
that all trouble was over ; but it is not enough to invent 
a process, — to carry it out, all sorts of little things have 
to be considered, the least of which, if not attended to, may 
spoil all the rest. These multiplied accidents, with all the 
privations and sufferings he had undergone, were attacking 
the health of Palissy. He says in his simple style, — 

" I was so used up in my person, that there was no 
shape or appearance of curve on my arms or legs ; my so- 
called legs, indeed, were but a straight line, so that when 
I had gartered my stockings, as soon as I began to walk, 
they were down on my heels." 

His enamelled pottery now began to make a living for 
its inventor, but so poor a living that many things were 
wanting, — for instance, a suitable workshop. For five or 
six years he carried on the work in the open air ; either 
heat, rain, or cold spoiled many of his vases, while he him- 
self, exposed to the weather, " passed whole nights at the 
mercy of rain and cold, without any aid, comfort, or 



NATURE IN ART 95 

companionship except that of owls screeching on one side 
and dogs howling on the other. Sometimes," he continues, 
" winds and tempests blew with such violence inside and 
outside of my ovens, that I was obliged to leave, with a 
total loss of all they contained. Several times when I had 
thus left everything, without a dry rag upon me, on account 
of the rain, I came in at midnight or daybreak without any 
light, staggering like a drunken man, all broken down at 
the thought of my wasted toil ; and then, all wet and dirty 
as I was, I found in my bedroom the worst affliction of 
all, which makes me wonder now why I was not consumed 
by grief." He means the scolding and reproaches of his 
wife. 

But the time came when his perseverance was rewarded, 
and his pottery brought him the fame and money he de- 
served. He was able to make new experiments, and add 
to the value of his discovery. Having obtained the white 
enamel, he had the idea of tinting it with all sorts of colors, 
which he did successfully. He then began to decorate his 
faience with objects modelled from nature, such as animals, 
shells, leaves, and branches. Lizards of a bright emerald 
color, with pointed heads and slender tails, and snakes 
gliding between stones or curled upon a bank of moss, 
crabs, frogs, and spiders, all of their natural colors, and 
disposed in the midst of plants equally well imitated, are 
the characteristic details of the work of Palissy. 

These perfect imitations of Nature were taken actually 
from Nature herself. Palissy prepared a group of real 
leaves and stones, putting the little insects or animals he 
wished to represent in natural attitudes amongst them. 
He fastened these reptiles, fishes, or insects in their places 
by fine threads, and then made a mould of the whole in 
plaster of Paris. When it was done, he removed the little 



96 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

animals from the mould so carefully that he could use 
them over and over again. 

Thus, after sixteen years passed in untiring energy, six- 
teen years of anxiety and privation, the artist triumphed 
over all the obstacles opposed to his genius. The humble 
potter, despised of all, became the most important man in 
his town. His productions were sought for eagerly, and 
his reputation established forever. 

His life henceforth was not free from events, but these 
were not connected with his invention. His fame came to 
the knowledge of the queen mother Catherine de Medicis ; 
for Francis I. was no longer living, and Charles IX. had 
succeeded Francis II. upon the throne. He was sum- 
moned to Court, and employed to build grottos, deco- 
rated with his designs, by personages of distinction, — one 
especially for the queen herself, which he describes in his 
Discourse of the " Jardin Delectable." 

He was in Paris at the time of the terrible massacre of 
St. Bartholomew, where, as he was a Huguenot, he would 
doubtless have perished but for the protection of the 
queen, who helped him to escape with his family. 

Later, however, in the midst of the troubles and terrors 
of the time, he was thrown into the Bastille ; and there he 
died, an old man of eighty years. 



VI. 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

" T X 7E call the Americans a nation of inventors," said 
* * Fergus. "How long has this been true?" 
"That is a very curious question," said Uncle Fritz. 
" You remember we were talking of it before. When I go 
back to think of the hundred and fifty years before Bunker 
Hill, I think there must have been a great many inglorious 
Miltons hidden away in the New England towns. Really, 
the arts advanced very little between 1630 and 1775. 
Flint-locks had come in, instead of match-locks. But, 
actually, the men at Bunker Hill rested over the rail-fence 
old muskets which had been used in Queen Anne's time ; 
and to this day a ' Queen's arm ' is a provincial phrase, 
in New England, for one of these old weapons, not yet 
forgotten. That inability to improve its own condition 
comes to a people which lets another nation do its manu- 
facturing for it. You see much the same thing in Turkey 
and French Canada. Just as soon as they were thrown 
on their own resources here, they began to invent." 

" But," said Fergus, " there was certainly one great 
American inventor before that time." 

" You mean Franklin, — the greatest American yet, I 

suppose, if you mean to measure greatness by intellectual 

power and intellectual achievement. Yes ; Franklin's 

great discovery, and the inventions which followed on it, 

7 



98 stories of invention: 

were made twenty-five years and more before Bunker 
Hill." 

" What is the association between Franklin and Robin- 
son Crusoe?" asked Alice. "I never read of one but 
I think of the other." 

Uncle Fritz's whole face beamed with approbation. 

" You have started me upon one of my hobbies," said 
he ; " but I must not ride it too far. Franklin says him- 
self that De Foe's ' Essay on Projects ' and Cotton Mather's 
' Essay to do Good ' were two books which perhaps gave 
him a turn of thinking which had an influence on some 
of the events in his after life. And you may notice how 
an ' Essay on Projects ' might start his passion for having 
things done better than in the ways he saw. The books 
that he was brought up on and with were books of 
De Foe's own time, — none of them more popular among 
reading people of Boston than De Foe's own books, for 
De Foe was a great light among their friends in England. 

" If Robinson Crusoe, on his second voyage, which 
was in the year 1718, had run into Boston for supplies, 
as he thought of doing; and if old Judge Sewall had 
asked him to dinner, — as he would have been likely 
to do, for Robinson was a godly old gentleman then, 
of intelligence and fortune, — if there had been by ac- 
cident a vacant place at the table at the last moment, 
Judge Sewall might have sent round to Franklin's father 
to ask him to come in. For the elder Franklin, though 
only a tallow-chandler, — and only Goodman Franklin, 
not Mr. Franklin, — was a member of the church, well 
esteemed. He led the singing at the Old South after 
Judge Sewall's voice broke down. 

" Nay, when one remembers how much Sewall had to 
do with printing, one might imagine that the boy Ben 



FRANKLIN AND DE FOE. 99 

Franklin should wait at the door with a proof-sheet, and 
even take off his boy's hat as Robinson Crusoe came in." 

Here Bedford Long put in a remark : — 

"There are things in Robinson Crusoe's accounts of 
his experiments in making his pipkins, which ought to 
bring him into any book of American inventors." 

" I never thought before," said Fergus, " that De Foe's 
experiences in making tiles and tobacco-pipes and drain- 
pipes fitted him for all that learned discussion of glazing, 
when Robinson Crusoe makes his pots and pans." 

" Good ! " said Uncle Fritz ; " that must be so. — Well, 
as you say, Alice, there are whole sentences in that nar- 
rative which you could suppose Franklin wrote, and 
in his works whole sentences which would fit in closely 
with De Foe's writing. The style of the younger man 
very closely resembles that of the older." 

" And Franklin would have been very much pleased 
to hear you say so." 

" He was forever inventing," said Uncle Fritz. "As I 
said, he was worried unless things could be better done. 
- If he was in a storm, he wanted to still the waves. If the 
chimney smoked, he wanted to make a better fireplace. 
If he heard a girl play the musical-glasses, he must have 
and make a better set." 

" And if the house was struck by lightning, he went 
out and put up a lightning-rod." 

" He had a little book by which people should make 
themselves better ; for he rightly considered that unless 
a man could do this, he could make no other improve- 
ment of much account." 

And when Uncle Fritz had said this, he found the 
passage, which he bade John read to them. 

Lore. 



I CO STORIES OF IA r VENTION. 



FRANKLIN'S METHOD OF GROWING BETTER. 

" I made a little book in which I allotted a page for 
each of the virtues. [He had classified the virtues and 
made a list of thirteen, which will be named below.] I 
ruled each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, 
one for each day of the week, marking each column with 
a letter for the day. I crossed these columns with thir- 
teen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with 
the first letter of one of the virtues, on which line and 
in its proper column I might mark, by a little black spot, 
every fault I found upon examination to have been com- 
mitted respecting that virtue upon that day. The thirteen 
virtues were: i. Temperance: 2. Silence; 3. Order; 
4. Resolution; 5. Frugality; 6. Industry; 7. Sin- 
cerity; 8. Justice; 9. Moderation; 10. Cleanliness ; 
11. Tranquillity; 12. Chastity; 13. Humility. Each 
of these appears, by its full name or its initial, on every 
page of the book. But the full name of one only appears 
on each page. 

" My intention being to acquire the habitude of these 
virtues, I judged it would be well not to distract my atten- 
tion by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on one 
of them at a time, and when I should be master of that, 
then to proceed to another, — and so on, till I should have 
gone through the thirteen ; and as the previous acquisi- 
tion might facilitate the acquisition of certain others, I 
arranged them with that view. Temperance first, as it 
tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head 
which is so necessary where constant vigilance has to be 
kept up, and a guard maintained against the unremitting 
attraction of ancient habits, and the force of perpetual 



RESOLUTION BOOK. 



101 



temptations." x And so he goes on to show how Tem- 
perance would prepare for Silence, Silence for Order, 
Order for Resolution, and thus to the end. 

Here is the first page of the book, with the marks for 
the first six of the virtues. 



TEMPERANCE. 



Eat not to Dulness. 
Drink not to Elevation. 



T. 

S. 

o. 

R. 
F. 
I. 

S. 

J- 

M. 

C. 

T. 

C. 

H. 



s. 


M. 


T. 


W. 


Th. 


F. 


* 


* 




* 




* 


* 


* 


* 
* 

* 




* 
* 


* 
* 



" I determined to give a week's strict attention to each 
of the virtues successively. Thus, in the first week my 
great guard was to avoid every the least offence against 
Temperance, leaving the other virtues to their ordinary 
chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day c 

1 As St. James says, " The wisdom from above is first pure." 



102 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

Thus, if in the first week I could ke'ep my first line, 
marked T, clear of spots, I supposed the habit of that 
virtue so much strengthened, and its opposite weakened, 
that I might venture extending my attention to include 
the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear 
of spots. Proceeding thus to the last, I could go through 
a course complete in thirteen weeks, and four courses in 
a year. And like him who having a garden to weed 
does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, 
which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works 
on one of the beds at a time, and, having accomplished 
the first, proceeds to the second, so I should have, I 
hoped, the encouraging pleasure of seeing on my pages 
the progress I made in virtue, by clearing successively my 
lines of their spots, till in the end, by a number of courses, 
I should be happy in viewing a clean book, after a thir- 
teen weeks' daily examination." 

Uncle Fritz said that this plan of Franklin's had been 
quite a favorite plan of different people at the end of the 
last century. Richard Lovell Edgeworth, and Mr. Day, 
and a good many of the other reformers in England, and 
many in France, really thought that if people only knew 
what was right they would all begin and do it. They had 
to learn, by their own experience or somebody's, that the 
difficulty was generally deeper down. 

There was a man, named Droz, who published a little 
book called "The Art of being Happy," with tables on 
which every night you were to mark yourself, as a school- 
mistress marks scholars at school, 10 for truth, 3 for tem- 
per, 5 for industry, 9 for frugality, and so on. 1 

1 Joseph Droz, born in 1773. His essay was published in 1806, and had 
come to its fourth edition in 1825. 



ELECTRICITY. IO3 

" But in the long run," said Uncle Fritz, " there may 
be too much self-examination. If you really look up and 
not down, and look forward and not back, and loyally 
lend a hand, why, you can afford to look out and not in, 
in general." 

Fergus brought the talk back to the lightning-rod, and 
asked where was the earliest hint of it. 

The history seems to be this. In the year 1747 a gen- 
tleman named Collinson sent to Franklin, from England 
or Scotland, one of the glass tubes with which people 
were then trying electrical experiments. Franklin was 
very much interested. He went on repeating the experi- 
ments which had been made in England and on the Con- 
tinent of Europe. With his general love of society in such 
things, he had other glass tubes made, and gave them to 
his friends. 

He had one immense advantage over the wise men of 
England and France, in the superior dryness of our air, 
which greatly favors such experiments. Almost any one 
of the young Americans who will read this book has tried 
the experiment of exciting electricity by shuffling across a 
Brussels carpet on a dry floor, and then lighting the gas 
from a gas-jet by the spark. But when you tell an Eng- 
lishman in London that you have done this, he thinks at 
first that you are making fun of him. For it is very sel- 
dom that the air and the carpet and the floor are all dry 
enough for the experiment to succeed in England. This 
difference of climate accounts for the difficulty which the 
philosophers in England sometimes found in repeating 
Dr. Franklin's experiments. 

When it came to lightning and experiments about that, 
he had another very great advantage ; for we have many 
more thunder-storms than they have. In the year 1752, 



104 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

when Mr. Watson was very eager to try the lightning ex- 
periments in England, he seems to have had, in all the 
summer, but two storms of thunder and lightning. 

Franklin made his apparatus on a scale which now 
seems almost gigantic. The " conductor " of an electri- 
cal machine such as you will generally see in a college 
laboratory is seldom more than two feet long. Franklin's 
conductor, which was hung by silk from the top of his 
room, was a cylinder ten feet long and one foot in diam- 
eter, covered with gilt paper. In his " Leyden battery " 
he used five glass jars, as big as large water-pails, — they 
held nine gallons each. One night he had arranged to 
kill a turkey by a shock from two of these. He received 
the shock himself, by accident, and it almost killed him. 
He had a theory that if turkeys were killed by electricity, 
the meat would perhaps be more tender. 

He acknowledges Mr. Coilinson's present of the glass 
tube as early as March 28, 1747. On the nth of July 
he writes to Collinson that they ("we") had discovered 
the power of points to withdraw electricity silently and 
continuously. On this discovery the lightning-rod is 
based. He describes this quality, first observed by Mr. 
Hopkinson, in the following letter : — 

"The first is the wonderful effect of pointed bodies, 
both in drawing off 'and throzai/ig oJf\\\Q electrical fire. 

" For example, place an iron shot, of three or four 
inches diameter, on the mouth of a clean, dry glass bottle. 
By a fine silken thread from the ceiling, right over the 
mouth of the bottle, suspend a small cork ball about the 
bigness of a marble ; the thread of such a length, as that 
the cork ball may rest against the side of the shot. Elec- 
trify the shot, and the ball will be repelled to the distance 
of four or five inches, more or less, according to the 



SHARP CONDUCTORS, 105 

quantity of electricity. When in this state, if you present 
to the shot the point of a long, slender, sharp bodkin, at 
six or eight inches distance, the repellency is instantly 
destroyed, and the cork flies to the shot. A blunt body 
must be brought within an inch and draw a spark, to pro- 
duce the same effect. To prove that the electrical fire is 
drawn off by the point, if you take the blade of the bodkin 
out of the wooden handle, and fix it in a stick of sealing- 
wax, and then present it at the distance aforesaid, or if you 
bring it very near, no such effect follows ; but sliding one 
finger along the wax till you touch the blade, the ball flies 
to the shot immediately. If you present the point in the 
dark, you will see, sometimes at a foot distance and more, 
a light gather upon it, like that of a firefly or glow-worm ; 
the less sharp the point, the nearer you must bring it to 
observe the light * and at whatever distance you see the 
light, you may draw off the electrical fire, and destroy the 
repellency. If a cork ball so suspended be repelled by 
the tube, and a point be presented quick to it, though at a 
considerable distance, it is surprising to see how suddenly 
it flies back to the tube. Points of wood will do near as 
well as those of iron, provided the wood is not dry ; for 
perfectly dry wood will no more conduct electricity than 
sealing-wax. 

" To show that points will throw off as well as draw off 
the electrical fire, lay a long, sharp needle upon the shot, 
and you cannot electrize the shot so as" to make it repel 
the cork ball. Or fix a needle to the end of a suspended 
gun-barrel or iron rod, so as to point beyond it like a little 
bayonet; and while it remains there, the gun-barrel or 
rod cannot, by applying the tube to the other end, be 
electrized so as to give a spark, the fire continually run- 
ning out silently at the point. In the dark you may see 



106 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

it make the same appearance as it does in the case before 
mentioned." 

The next summer, that of 1 748, the experiments went 
so far, that in a letter of Franklin's to Collinson he pro- 
posed the electrical dinner-party, which was such a de- 
light to Harry and Lucy : — 

" Chagrined a little that we have been hitherto able to 
produce nothing in this way of use to mankind, and the 
hot weather coming on when electrical experiments are 
not so agreeable, it is proposed to put an end to them for 
this season, somewhat humorously, in a party of pleasure 
on the banks of the Skicylkill. Spirits, at the same time, 
are to be fired by a spark sent from side to side through 
the river, without any other conductor than the water ; an 
experiment which we some time since performed, to the 
amazement of many. A turkey is to be killed for our 
dinner by the electrical shock, and roasted by the electrical 
jack, before a fire kindled by the electrified bottle ; when 
the healths of all the famous electricians in England, Hol- 
land, France, and Germany are to be drank in electrified 
bumpers, under the discharge of guns from the electrical 
battery" 

It was in a letter to Collinson of the next year, 1 749, — 
as I suppose, though it is not dated, — that the project of 
the lightning-rod first appears. It is too long to copy. 
The paragraphs most important in this view are the fol- 
lowing : — 

"42. An electrical spark, drawn from an irregular body 
at some distance, is scarcely ever straight, but shows 
crooked and waving in the air. So do the flashes of light- 
ning, the clouds being very irregular bodies. 

" 43. As electrified clouds pass over a country, high hills 
and high trees, lofty towers, spires, masts of ships, chim- 



LIGHTNING. 107 

neys, &c, as so many prominences and points, draw the 
electrical fire, and the whole cloud discharges there. 

" 44. Dangerous, therefore, is it to take shelter under a 
tree during a thunder-gust. It has been fatal to many, 
both men and beasts. 

" 45. It is safer to be in the open field for another reason. 
When the clothes are wet, if a flash in its way to the ground 
should strike your head, it may run in the water over the 
surface of your body ; whereas, if your clothes were dry, 
it would go through the body, because the blood and 
other humors, containing so much water, are more ready 
conductors. 

" Hence a wet rat cannot be killed by the exploding 
electrical bottle, when a dry rat may." 

In a letter of 1750, based upon observations made in 
1749, Franklin said distinctly, after describing some arti- 
ficial lightning which he had made : — 

" If these things are so, may not the knowledge of this 
power of points be of use to mankind, in preserving houses, 
churches, ships, &c, from the stroke of lightning, by di- 
recting us to fix, on the highest parts of these edifices, 
upright rods of iron made sharp as a needle, and gilded to 
prevent rusting, and from the foot of those rods a wire 
down the outside of the building into the ground, or down 
round one of the shrouds of a ship, and down her side till 
it reaches the water? Would not these pointed rods prob- 
ably draw the electrical fire silently out of a cloud before it 
came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from 
that most sudden and terrible mischief? 

"To determine the question whether the clouds that 
contain lightning are electrified or not, I would propose an 
experiment to be tried where it may be done conveniently. 
On the top of some high tower or steeple, place a kind of 



108 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

sentry-box, big enough to contain a man and an electrical 
stand. From the middle of the stand let an iron rod rise 
and pass bending out of the door and then upright twenty 
or thirty feet, pointed very sharp at the end. If the elec- 
trical stand be kept clean and dry, a man standing on it, 
when such clouds are passing low, might be electrified and 
afford sparks, the rod drawing fire to him from a cloud. 
If any danger to the man should be apprehended (though 
I think there would be none), let him stand on the floor of 
his box, and now and then bring near to the rod the loop 
of a wire that has one end fastened to the leads, he holding 
it by a wax handle ; so the sparks, if the rod is electrified, 
will strike from the rod to the wire, and not affect him." 

The Royal Society " did not think these papers worth 
printing " ! 

But, happily, Collinson printed them, and they went all 
over Europe. The demonstration of the lightning theory, 
which he had wrought out by his own experiments, was 
made in France, May 10, 1752; and in Philadelphia by 
Franklin with the kite in the next month, before he had 
heard of the success in France. Franklin's friend Dali- 
bard tried the French experiment. Here is his account of 
it, as he sent it to the French Academy, as Roxana trans- 
lated it for the young people : — 

I have had perfect success in following out the course 
indicated by Mr. Franklin. 

I had set up at Marly-la-ville, situated six leagues from 
Paris, in a fine plain at a very elevated level, a round rod 
of iron, about an inch in diameter, forty feet long, and 
sharply pointed at its upper extremity. To secure greater 
fineness at the point, I had it armed with tempered steel, 
and then burnished, for want of gilding, so as to keep it 



THE GREAT EXPERIMENT. 109 

from rusting ; beside that, this iron rod is bent near its 
lower end into two acute but rounded angles ; the first an- 
gle is two feet from the lower end, and the second takes a 
contrary direction at three feet from the first 

Wednesday, the 10th of May, 1752, between two and 
three in the afternoon, a man named Coiffier, an old dra- 
goon, whom I had intrusted with making the observations 
in my absence, having heard rather a loud clap of thunder, 
hastened at once to the machine, took the phial with the 
wire, presented the loop of the wire to the rod, saw a 
small bright spark come from it, and heard it crackle. 
He then drew a second spark, brighter than the first and 
with a louder sound ! He called his neighbors, and sent 
for the Prior. This gentleman hastened to the spot as 
fast as he could : the parishioners, seeing the haste of their 
priest, imagined that poor Coiffier had been killed by the 
thunder ; the alarm was spread in the village ; the hail- 
storm which began did not prevent the flock from fol- 
lowing its shepherd. This honest priest approached the 
machine, and, seeing that there was no danger, went to 
work himself and drew strong sparks. The cloud from 
which the storm and hail came was no more than a quar- 
ter of an hour in passing directly over our machine, and 
only this one thunder-clap was heard. As soon as the 
cloud had passed, and no more sparks were drawn from 
the iron rod, the Prior of Marly sent off Monsieur Coiffier 
himself, to bring me the following letter, which he wrote 
in haste : — 

I can now inform you, Sir, of what you are looking 
for. The experiment is completely successful. To-day, 
at twenty minutes past two, p. m., the thunder rolled 



110 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

directly over Marly ; the clap was rather load. The desire 
to oblige you, and my own curiosity, made me leave my 
arm-chair, where I was occupied in reading. I went to 
Coiffier's, who had already sent a child to me, whom I met 
on the way, to beg me to come. I redoubled my speed 
through a torrent of hail. When I arrived at the place 
where the bent rod was set up, I presented the wire, ap- 
proaching it several times toward the rod. At the distance 
of an inch and a half, or about that, there came out of the 
rod a little column of bluish fire smelling of sulphur, which 
struck the loop of the wire with an extreme and rapid en- 
ergy, and occasioned a sound like that which might be 
made by striking on the rod with a key. I repeated the 
experiment at least six times, in the space of about four 
minutes, in the presence of several persons ; and each ex- 
periment which I made lasted the space of a Pater and an 
Ave. I tried to go on ; the action of the fire slackened 
little by little. I went nearer, and drew nothing more but 
a few sparks, and at last nothing appeared. 

The thunder-clap which caused this event was fol- 
lowed by no other ; it all ended in a great quantity of hail. 
I was so occupied with what I saw at the moment of the 
experiment, that, having been struck on the arm a little 
above my elbow, I cannot say whether it was in touching 
the wire or the rod, I was not even aware of the injury 
which the blow had given me at the moment when I re- 
ceived it ; but as the pain continued, on my return home 
I uncovered my arm before Coiffier, and we perceived a 
bruised mark winding round the arm, like what a wire 
would have made if my bare flesh had been struck by it. 
As I was going back from Coiffier's house, I met Monsieur 
le Vicaire, Monsieur de Milly, and the schoolmaster, to 
whom I related what had just happened. They all three 



THE GREA T EXPERIMENT. 1 1 1 

declared that they smelt an odor of sulphur, which struck 
them more as they approached me. I carried the same 
odor home with me, and my servants noticed it without 
my having said anything to them about it. 

This, Monsieur, is an account given in haste, but sim- 
ple and true, which I attest, and you may depend on my 
being ready to give evidence of this event on every oppor 
tunity. Coiffier was the first who made the experiment, 
and repeated it several times ; it was only on account of 
what he had seen that he sent to ask me to come. If 
other witnesses than he and I are necessary, you will find 
them. Coiffier is in haste to set out. 

I am, with respectful consideration, Monsieur, 
Yours, &c, 
[Signed] Raulet, Prior of Marly, 

May io, 1752. 

"I do not understand," said Uncle Fritz, " how it hap- 
pened that no one attempted the experiment before. 
Franklin had proposed it, very distinctly, in 1750. His 
friend Dr. Stuber says that he was waiting for the erection 
of a steeple in Philadelphia. You see, the Quakers, who 
had founded this city, would have none ; they derided 
what they called l . steeple-houses,' little foreseeing what 
advantage could be drawn from a steeple. 

"Meanwhile, in 1750, in October, he did take a view 
of New York from the ' Dutch Church steeple,' which 
had been struck by lightning in the spring of that year. 
And here he was able to confirm his theory, by seeing 
that ' wire is a good conductor of lightning, as it is of 
electricity.' " 



I 1 2 STORIES OF INVENTION. 



MUSICAL GLASSES. 

While some of the children were reading these electrical 
passages, others were turning over the next volume j and 
to their great delight, they found a picture of the " Musical 
Glasses." 

" I never had the slightest idea what musical glasses 
were," said Jack ; and he spouted from Goldsmith the 
passage from "The Vicar of Wakefield," where the fash- 
ionable ladies from London talked about " Shakspeare 
and the musical glasses." 

" Were they Dr. Franklin's musical glasses?" 

" I never thought of that," said Uncle Fritz, well 
pleased ; " but I think it is so. John, look and see what 
year 'The Vicar of Wakefield ' was written in." 

John turned to the Cyclopaedia, and it proved that 
Goldsmith wrote that book in 1766. 

" And you see," said Uncle Fritz, " that it was in 1762 
that Franklin made his improvement, and that Mr. Puck- 
eridge, the Irish gentleman, had arranged his glasses before. 
I think you would find that the instrument gradually 
worked its way into fashion, — slowly, as such things then 
did in England, — and that Goldsmith knew about Dr. 
Franklin's modification. 

" I do not now remember any other place where Gold- 
smith's life and his touched. But they must have known 
a great many of the same people. Franklin was all mixed 
up with the Grub Street people." 

Meanwhile John was following up the matter in the 
Cyclopaedia. But he did not find "Armonica." Uncle 
Fritz bade him try in the " H " volume ; and there, sure 
enough, was " Harmonica," with quite a little history of 



HARMONICA. U3 

the invention. Mr. Puckeridge's fascinating name is 
there tamed down to Pochrich, probably by some Ger- 
man translator. Dr. Franklin's instrument is described, 
and the Cyclopaedia man adds : — 

" From the effect which it was supposed to have upon 
the nervous system, it has been suggested that the fingers 
should not be allowed to come in immediate contact with 
the glasses, but that the tones should be produced by 
means of keys, as with a harpsichord. Such an instru- 
ment has been made, and called the ' harpsichord har- 
monica. 1 But these experiments have not produced 
anything of much value. It is impossible that the del- 
icacy, the swell, and the continuation of the tone should 
be carried to such perfection as in the simpler method. 
The harmonica, however much it excels all other instru- 
ments in the delicacy and duration of its tones, yet is 
confined to those of a soft and melancholy character and 
to slow, solemn movements, and can hardly be combined 
to advantage with other instruments. In accompanying 
the human voice it throws it into the shade ; and in con- 
certs the other instruments lose in effect, because so far 
inferior to it in tone. It is therefore best enjoyed by 
itself, and may produce a charming effect in certain 
romantic situations." 

" ' Romantic situations ' ! I should think so," said Ma- 
bel, laughing. " Is not that like the dear German man 
that wrote this? I see myself lugging my harmonica to 
the edge of the Kauterskill Falls." 

" How do you know he was a German ? " said Alice. 

" Because, where John read ' the simpler method,' it 
says ' the before -mentioned method.' No Englishman or 
American in his senses ever said ' before-mentioned ' if 
he could help himself." 



114 STORIES OF INVENTION-. 

"Do let us see how dear Dr. Franklin made his 
machine." 

And the girls unfolded the old-fashioned picture, which 
is in the sixth volume of Sparks' s Franklin, and read his 
description of it as he wrote it to Beccaria. 

" Is it the Beccaria who did about capital punishment ? " 
asked Fergus. 

" No," Uncle Fritz said, " though they lived at the 
same time. They were not brothers. The capital-pun- 
ishment man was the Marquis of Beccaria, and that of 
makes a great difference in Europe. This man ' did ' 
electricity, as you would say; and his name is plain 
Beccaria without any of" 

Then Mabel, commanding silence, at last read the letter 
to Beccaria. And when she had done, Uncle Fritz said 
that he should think there might be many a boy or girl 
who could not buy a piano or what he profanely called 
a Yang- Yang, — by which he meant a reed organ, — who 
would like to make a harmonica. The letter, in a part 
not copied here, tells how to tune the glasses. And 
any one who lived near a glass-factory, and was on the 
good-natured side of a good workman, could have the 
glasses made without much expense. 

Letter of Franklin to J. B. Beccaria. 

London, July 13, 1762. 
Reverend Sir, — ... Perhaps, however, it may be 
agreeable to you, as you live in a musical country, to have 
an account of the new instrument lately added here to the 
great number that charming science was already possessed 
of. As it is an instrument that seems peculiarly adapted 
to Italian music, especially that of the soft and plaintive 
kind, 1 will endeavor to give you such a description of it, 



MUSICAL GLASSES. 115 

and of the manner of constructing it, that you or any of 
your friends may be enabled to imitate it, if you incline 
so to do, without being at the expense and trouble I have 
been to bring it to its present perfection. 

You have doubtless heard of the sweet tone that is drawn 
from a drinking-glass by passing a wet finger round its brim. 
One Mr. Puckeridge, a gentleman from Ireland, was the 
first who thought of playing tunes formed of these tones. 
He collected a number of glasses of different sizes, fixed 
them near each other on a table, tuned them by putting 
into them water more or less, as each note required. The 
tones were brought out by passing his finger round their 
brims. He was unfortunately burned here, with his in- 
strument, in a fire which consumed the house he lived in, 
Mr. E. Delaval, a most ingenious member of our Royal 
Society, made one in imitation of it, with a better form 
and choice of glasses, which was the first I saw or heard. 
Being charmed by the sweetness of its tones, and the 
music he produced from it, I wished only to see the 
glasses disposed in a more convenient form, and brought 
together in a narrower compass, so as to admit of a 
greater number of tones, and all within reach of hand 
to a person sitting before the instrument, which I accom- 
plished, after various intermediate trials, and less commo- 
dious forms, both of glasses and construction, in the 
following manner. 

The glasses are blown as nearly as possible in the form 
of hemispheres, having each an open neck or socket in the 
middle. The thickness of the glass near the brim about 
a tenth of an inch, or hardly quite so much, but thicker 
as it comes nearer the neck, which in the largest glasses 
is about an inch deep, and an inch and a half wide within, 
these dimensions lessening as the glasses themselves dimin- 



Il6 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

ish in size, except that the neck of the smallest ought not 
to be shorter than half an inch. The largest glass is nine 
inches diameter, and the smallest three inches. Between 
these two are twenty-three different sizes, differing from 
each other a quarter of an inch in diameter. To make a 
single instrument there should be at least six glasses blown 
of each size ; and out of this number one may probably 
pick thirty-seven glasses (which are sufficient for three 
octaves with all the semitones) that will be each either the 
note one wants or a little sharper than that note, and all 
fitting so well into each other as to taper pretty regularly 
from the largest to the smallest. It is true there are not 
thirty-seven sizes, but it often happens that two of the 
same size differ a note or half-note in tone, by reason of a 
difference in thickness, and these may be placed one in 
the other without sensibly hurting the regularity of the 
taper form. 

The glasses being thus turned, you are to be provided 
with a case for them, and a spindle on which they are to 
be fixed. My case is about three feet long, eleven inches 
every way wide at the biggest end ; for it tapers all the 
way, to adapt it better to the conical figure of the set of 
glasses. This case opens in the middle of its height, and 
the upper part turns up by hinges fixed behind. The 
spindle, which is of hard iron, lies horizontally from end 
to end of the box within, exactly in the middle, and is 
made to turn on brass gudgeons at each end. It is round, 
an inch in diameter at the thickest end, and tapering to a 
quarter of an inch at the smallest. A square shank comes 
from its thickest end through the box, on which shank a 
wheel is fixed by a screw. This wheel serves as a fly to 
make the motion equable, when the spindle with the 
glasses is turned by the foot like a spinning-wheel. My 



MUSICAL GLASSES. WJ 

wheel is of mahogany, eighteen inches diameter, and 
pretty thick, so as to conceal near its circumference about 
twenty-five pounds of lead. An ivory pin is fixed in the 
face of this wheel, and about four inches from the axis. 
Over the neck of this pin is put the loop of the string that 
comes up from the movable step to give it motion. The 
case stands on a neat frame with four legs. 

To fix the glasses on the spindle, a cork is first to be 
fitted in each neck pretty tight, and projecting a little 
without the neck, that the neck of one may not touch the 
inside of another when put together, for that would make 
a jarring. These corks are to be perforated with holes of 
diiferent diameters, so as to suit that part of the spindle 
on which they are to be fixed. When a glass is put on, by 
holding it stiffly between both hands, while another turns 
the spindle, it may be gradually brought to its place. But 
care must be taken that the hole be not too small, lest, in 
forcing it up, the neck should split ; nor too large, lest the 
glass, not being firmly fixed, should turn or move on the 
spindle, so as to touch or jar against its neighboring glass. 
The glasses are thus placed one in another, the largest on 
the biggest end of the spindle, which is to the left hand ; 
the neck of this glass is towards the wheel, and the next 
goes into it in the same position, only about an inch of its 
brim appearing beyond the brim of the first ; thus pro- 
ceeding, every glass when fixed shows about an inch of its 
brim (or three quarters of an inch, or half an inch, as they 
grow smaller) beyond the brim of the glass that contains 
it ; and it is from these exposed parts of each glass that 
the tone is drawn, by laying a finger upon one of them as 
the spindle and glasses turn round. 

My largest glass is G, a little below the reach of a com- 
mon voice, and my highest G, including three complete 



Il8 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

octaves. To distinguish the glasses the more readily to 
the eye, I have painted the apparent parts of the glasses 
withinside, every semitone white, and the other notes of the 
octave with the seven prismatic colors, — viz., C, red ; D, 
orange ; E, yellow • F, green ; G, blue ; A, indigo ; B, 
purple; and C, red again, — so that glasses of the same 
color (the white excepted) are always octaves to each 
other. 

This instrument is played upon by sitting before the 
middle of the set of glasses, as before the keys of a harp- 
sichord, turning them with the foot, and wetting them now 
and then with a sponge and clean water. The fingers 
should be first a little soaked in water, and quite free from 
all greasiness ; a little fine chalk upon them is sometimes 
useful, to make them catch the glass and bring out the 
tone more readily. Both hands are used, by which 
means different parts are played together. Observe that 
the tones are best brought out when the glasses turn from 
the ends of the fingers, not when they turn to them. 

The advantages of this instrument are, that its tones are 
incomparably sweet, beyond those of any other ; that they 
may be swelled and softened at pleasure by stronger or 
weaker pressure of the finger, and continued to any length ; 
and that the instrument, being once well tuned, never 
again wants tuning. 

In honor of your musical language, I have borrowed 
from it the name of this instrument, calling it the Ar- 
monica. 

With great respect and esteem, I am, &c, 

B. Franklin. 



VII. 

THEORISTS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 

RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH. 

A T the next meeting there was a slight deviation from 
r^ the absolutely expected. Bedford and Mabel de- 
sired to dispense with the regular order of the day, and 
moved for permission to bring in a new inventor, " in- 
vented by myself," said Mabel, — " entirely by myself, 
assisted by Bedford. Nobody that I know of ever heard 
of him before. He is a new discovery." 

"Who is he?" asked Horace, somewhat piqued that 
there should be any one interesting of whom he had not 
heard even the name. 

"What did he invent? " asked Emma. 

"Did he write memoirs? " asked Fergus. 

"Did you ever read ' Frank '?" asked Mabel, in what 
is known as the Socratic method. 

There was a slight stir at the mention of this little 
classic. Few seemed to be able to answer in the 
affirmative. 

" I have read ' Rollo,' " said Horace. 

"I have read f Frank,' " said Will Withers, " and ' Harry 
and Lucy,' and the ' Parents' Assistant,' and ' Sandford and 
Merton,' and ' Henry Milner.' In fact, there are few of 
those books, all kindred volumes, which I have not read. 
They have had an important effect upon my later life." 



120 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

"Hinc illae lachrymae," in a low tone from Clem 
Waters. 

For Colonel Ingham, the turn taken by the conver- 
sation had a peculiar charm. He was of the generation 
before the rest, and what were to them but ghostly ideals 
were to him glad memories of a happy past. 

"Good!" said he. "'Frank' was, in a sense, the 
greatest book ever written. Do you remember that part 
where Frank lifted up the skirts of his coat when passing 
through the greenhouse? " he asked of Mabel. 

" I should think I did," said Mabel and Will. As for 
Bedford, he had only a vague recollection of it. The 
others considered the conversation to be trembling upon 
the verge of insanity. 

" Perhaps," said Florence, gently, " I might be allowed 
to suggest that although you have heard of ' Frank ' and 
those other persons mentioned, we have not. I do not 
think that I ever heard of an inventor named Frank, — 
did he have any other name? — and I am usually con- 
sidered," she went on modestly, " tolerably well informed. 
Therefore the present conversation, though probably edify- 
ing in a high degree to those who have read ' Frank,' or 
who have some interest in horticulture and greenhouses, 
can hardly fail to be very stupid to those of us who have 
not." 

"My dear child," said the Colonel, "you are right. 
Mabel and I, and Will and Bedford here, are of the 
generation that is passing off the stage. We look back to 
the things of our youth, hardly considering that there are 
those to whom that period suggests Noah and his ark." 

"But who is the inventor?" asked some one who 
thought that the conversation was gradually leaving the 
trodden path. 



EDGEWORTH. 121 

" Oh, we had almost forgotten him," said Bedford. 

" The inventor," said Mabel, producing two volumes 
from under her arm, " is Mr. Richard Lovell Edgeworth, 
the father of Maria Edgeworth." 

" What did he invent? " asked many of the company. 

" He invented the telegraph." 

" Well, I never knew that before." 

" I thought Morse invented the telegraph." 

" Did n't Dr. Franklin invent the telegraph? " 

"I thought Edison — " 

Other remarks were also made, showing a certain 
amount of incredulity. 

" You mistake," said Bedford, placidly ; " you are all of 
you under a misapprehension. I think that you all of you 
allude to the electric telegraph, — an invention of a later date 
than that of Mr. Edgeworth, and one of more value, as far 
as practical affairs are concerned. No ; Mr. Edgeworth in- 
vented, or thinks he invented, the telegraph as it was used 
in the eighteenth century and the early part of the nine- 
teenth, sometimes named the Semaphore. It was n't a 
difficult invention, and I don't believe it ever came to any 
very practical use as constructed by Edgeworth, though 
French telegraphs were very useful." 

" What kind of a telegraph was it? " 

" Well, it was just the kind of a telegraph that the con- 
ductor of a railroad train is when he waves his arms to the 
engineer to go ahead. There 's an account of it by 
Edgeworth in one of these books, with pictures to it." 

"But my chief interest about Edgeworth," said Mabel, 
" is in his memoirs, which are written partly by himself and 
partly by his daughter. They are really very amusing. 
He was married five times, — once with a door- key when 
he was only fourteen." 



122 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

This startling intelligence roused even Colonel Ingham 
to demand particulars. Was he married to all five at 
once? to all of them when he was only fourteen? 

"No," admitted Mabel, with some regret; "he was 
married to them all at different times, and he was di- 
vorced from the one he married at fourteen with the 
door-key." 

" They were only married for fun," said Bedford. " It 
was all a joke. They were at a wedding, and they thought 
it would be funny after the real marriage to have a mock 
one. So they did, and married Edgeworth to a girl who 
was there. It was a real marriage, for they were after- 
wards divorced." 

" Well," said Sam Edmeston, " I shall be glad to hear 
about this gentleman, I 'm sure, though I never did hear 
of him before. But may I ask why it was necessary to 
introduce him by means of an allusion to ' Frank ' and 
other works which we have few of us ever read, though 
it is very possible that we may some of us have heard of 
them?" 

"I see why Mabel spoke first of ' Frank/ " said Colonel 
Ingham. "And I think that she did very well to bring 
Edgeworth in as she has done. And Edgeworth, though 
I had not thought of him before, is very fit to be one 
of our inventors, not so much for his individual accom- 
plishments, which were little more than curious, — tele- 
graph and all, — as for being a good representative of his 
age. Those of you who know a little of the century be- 
tween 1750 and 1850 know that it was an age to which 
many of the secrets of physical science were being opened 
for the first time. Everybody was going back to Nature 
to see what he could learn from her. This movement 
bvvept all over France and England. Every gentleman 



CHILDREN'S BOOKS. 1 23 

dabbled in the sciences, and made his experiments and 
inventions. Voltaire in France had a great laboratory 
made for him in which he passed some years in chemical 
experiments. It was the age, too, of great inventions, — 
of the application of physical forces to the life of man. 
The invention of the steam-engine by Watt, and the ap- 
plications of it to the locomotive and the steamboat, came 
along toward the end of this period, and marked the work 
of the greatest men. But every one could not invent a 
steam-engine. So, by the hundreds of country gentlemen 
who studied science, chemistry, and astronomy, and the 
rest, there were constructed hundreds of orreries, globes, 
carriages, model-telegraphs, and such things ; and it is of 
these men that Edgeworth is the best, or at least the 
most available, representative, on account of his very 
interesting memoirs. 

" Such books as ' Harry and Lucy ' and ' Frank ' are 
the mirror of this movement. But to this is joined some- 
thing more, which John Morley speaks of in saying, ' An 
age touched by the spirit of hope turns naturally to the 
education of the young.' Then people knew that their 
own times were about as worthless as times could well be ; 
but as they learned more, they began to hope that things 
were improving, and that the children might see better 
times than those in which the fathers lived. And as 
physical science was to them an all-important factor in 
this approaching millennium, they took pains to teach 
these things to the young. Any of you who have read 
' Frank ' or ' Sandford and Merton ' will see what I mean. 
It was the hope that the children might be able to take 
the work where the fathers left it, and carry it on. And 
the children did. But I do not believe that any one of 
these eighteenth-century theorists had the first or vaguest 



124 STORIES OF INVENTION-. 

idea of the point to which his children and grandchildren 
would carry his work. 

" So much for Mr. Edgeworth from my point of view," 
concluded the Colonel. " You will hear what he thought 
of himself from Bedford." 



EDGEWORTH'S TELEGRAPH. 
[described by himself.] 

Bets of a rash or ingenious sort were in fashion in those 
days, and one proposal of what was difficult and uncom- 
mon led to another. A famous match was at that time 
pending at Newmarket between two horses that were in 
every respect as nearly equal as possible. Lord March, 
one evening at Ranelagh, expressed his regret to Sir 
Francis Delaval that he was not able to attend New- 
market at the next meeting. " I am obliged," said he, 
" to stay in London. I shall, however, be at the Turf 
Coffee House. I shall station fleet horses on the road to 
bring me the earliest intelligence of the event of the race, 
and shall manage my bets accordingly." 

I asked at what time in the evening he expected to 
know who was winner. He said about nine in the even- 
ing. I asserted that I should be able to name the win- 
ning horse at four o'clock in the afternoon. Lord March 
heard my assertion with so much incredulity as to urge 
me to defend myself; and at length I offered to lay five 
hundred pounds, that I would in London name the win- 
ning horse at Newmarket at five o'clock in the evening 
of the day when the great match in question was to be 
run. Sir Francis, having looked at me for encouragement, 
offered to lay five hundred pounds on my side ; Lord 



TELEGRAPHS. 1 25 

Eglintoun did the same ; Shaftoe and somebody else took 
up their bets ; and the next day we were to meet at the 
Turf Coffee House, to put our bets in writing. After we 
went home, I explained to Sir Francis Delaval the means 
that I proposed to use. I had early been acquainted 
with Wilkins's " Secret and Swift Messenger ; " I had also 
read in Hooke's Works of a scheme of this sort, and I 
had determined to employ a telegraph nearly resembling 
that which I have since published. The machinery I 
knew could be prepared in a few days. 

Sir Francis immediately perceived the feasibility of my 
scheme, and indeed its certainty of success. It was sum- 
mer-time ; and by employing a sufficient number of per- 
sons, we could place our machines so near as to be almost 
out of the power of the weather. When we all met at the 
Turf Coffee House, I offered to double my bet; so did 
' Sir Francis. The gentlemen on the opposite side were 
willing to accept my offer ; but before I would conclude 
my wager, I thought it fair to state to Lord March that I 
did not depend upon the fleetness or strength of horses 
to carry the desired intelligence, but upon other means, 
which I had, of being informed in London which horse 
had actually won at Newmarket, between the time when 
the race should be concluded and five o 'clock in the 
evening. My opponents thanked me for my candor and 
declined the bet. My friends blamed me extremely for 
giving up such an advantageous speculation. None of 
them, except Sir Francis, knew the means which I had 
intended to employ ; and he kept them a profound secret, 
with a view to use them afterwards for his own purposes. 
With that energy which characterized everything in which 
he engaged, he immediately erected, under my directions, 
an apparatus between his house and part of Piccadilly, — ■ 



126 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

an apparatus which was never suspected to be telegraphic. 
I also set up a night telegraph between a house which Sir 
F. Delaval occupied at Hampstead, and one to which I 
had access in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury. This 
nocturnal telegraph answered well, but was too expensive 
for common use. 

Upon my return home to Hare Hatch, I tried many 
experiments on different modes of telegraphic communica- 
tion. My object was to combine secrecy with expedition. 
For this purpose I intended to employ windmills, which 
might be erected for common economical uses, and which 
might at the same time afford easy means of communica- 
tion from place to place upon extraordinary occasions. 
There is a windwill at Nettlebed, which can be distinctly 
seen with a good glass from Assy Hill, between Maiden- 
head and Henly, the highest ground in England south of 
the Trent. With the assistance of Mr. Perrot, of Hare 
Hatch, I ascertained the practicability of my scheme 
between these places, which are nearly sixteen miles 
asunder. 

I have had occasion to show my claim to the revival of 
this invention in modern times, and in particular to prove 
that I had practised telegraphic communication in the 
year 1767, long before it was ever attempted in France. 
To establish these truths, I obtained from Mr. Perrot. a 
Berkshire gentleman, who resided in the neighborhood of 
Hare Hatch, and who was witness to my experiments, his 
testimony to the facts which I have just related. I have 
his letter ; and before its contents were published in the 
Memoirs of the Irish Academy for the year 1 796, I 
showed it to Lord Charlemont, President of the Roya) 
Irish Academy. 



IRISH TELEGRAPH. 1 27 

MR. EDGEWORTH'S TELEGRAPH IN IRELAND, 

[described by his daughter.] 

In August, 1794, my father made a trial of his tele- 
graph between Pakenham Hall and Edgeworth Town, a 
distance of twelve miles. He found it to succeed beyond 
his expectations ; and in November following he made 
another trial of it at Collon, at Mr. Foster's, in the county 
of Louth. The telegraphs were on two hills, at fifteen 
miles' distance from each other. A communication of 
intelligence was made, and an answer received, in the 
space of five minutes. Mr. Foster — my father's friend, 
and the friend of everything useful to Ireland — was well 
convinced of the advantage and security this country 
would derive from a system of quick and certain commu- 
nication; and, being satisfied of the sufficiency of this 
telegraph, advised that a memorial on the subject should 
be drawn up for Government. Accordingly, under his 
auspices, a memorial was presented, in 1795, to Lord 
Camden, then Lord Lieutenant. His Excellency glanced 
his eye over the paper, and said that he did not think 
such an establishment necessary, but desired to reserve 
the matter for further consideration. My father waited 
in Dublin for some time. The suspense and doubt in 
which courtiers are obliged to live is very different from 
that state of philosophical doubt which the wise recom- 
mend, and to which they are willing to submit. My 
father's patience was soon exhausted. The county in 
which he resided was then in a disturbed state ; and he 
was eager to return to his family, who required his pro- 
tection. Besides, to state things exactly as they were, 



128 STORIES OF INVENTION-. 

his was not the sort of temper suited to attendance upon 
the great. 

The disturbances in the County of Longford were quieted 
for a time by the military ; but again, in the autumn of the 
ensuing year (September, 1796), rumors of an invasion 
prevailed, and spread with redoubled force through Ire- 
land, disturbing commerce, and alarming all ranks of well- 
disposed subjects. My father wrote to Lord Carhampton, 
then Commander-in-Chief, and to Mr. Pelham (now Lord 
Chichester), who was then Secretary in Ireland, offering 
his services. The Secretary requested Mr. Edgeworth 
would furnish him with a memorial. Aware of the natural 
antipathy that public men feel at the sight of long memo- 
rials, this was made short enough to give it a chance of 
being read. 

(Presented, Oct. 6, 1796.) 

Mr. Edgeworth will undertake to convey intelligence 
from Dublin to Cork, and back to Dublin, by means of 
fourteen or fifteen different stations, at the rate of one 
hundred pounds per annum for each station, as long as 
Government shall think proper ; and from Dublin to any 
other place, at the same rate, in proportion to the dis- 
tance : provided that when Government chooses to dis- 
continue the business, they shall pay one year's contract 
over and above the current expense, as some compensa- 
tion for the prime cost of the apparatus, and the trouble of 
the first establishment. 

In a letter of a single page, accompanying this memo- 
rial, it was stated, that to establish a telegraphic corps of 
men sufficient to convey intelligence to every part of the 
kingdom where it should be necessary, stations tenable 
against a mob and against musketry might be effected 



TELEGRAPH. 1 29 

for the sum of six or seven thousand pounds. It was 
further observed, that of course there must be a consid- 
erable difference between a partial and a general plan of 
telegraphic communication ; that Mr. Edgeworth was per- 
fectly willing to pursue either, or to adopt without reserve 
any better plan that Government should approve. Thanks 
were returned, and approbation expressed. 

Nothing now appeared in suspense except the mode of 
the establishment, whether it should be civil or military. 
Meantime Mr. Pelham spoke of the Duke of York's wish 
to have a reconnoitring telegraph, and observed that Mr. 
Edgeworth's would be exactly what his Royal Highness 
wanted. Mr. Edgeworth in a few days constructed a 
portable telegraph, and offered it to Mr. Pelham. He 
accepted it, and at his request my brother Lovell carried 
it to England, and presented it to the Duke from Mr. 
Pelham. 

During the interval of my brother's absence in England, 
my father had no doubt that arrangements were making 
for a telegraphic establishment in Ireland. But the next 
time he went to the castle, he saw signs of a change in 
the Secretary's countenance, who seemed much hurried, 
— promised he would write, — wrote, and conveyed, in 
diplomatic form, a final refusal. Mr. Pelham indeed 
endeavored to make it as civil as he could, concluding 
his letter with these words : — 

The utility of a telegraph may hereafter be considered 
greater ; but I trust that at all events those talents which 
have been directed to this pursuit will be turned to some 
other object, and that the public will have the benefit of 
that extraordinary activity and zeal which I have witnessed 
on this occasion in some other institution which I am 
9 



130 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

sure that the ingenuity of the author will not require much 
time to suggest. 

I have the honor to be, with great respect, &c, 

T. Pelham. 

Dublin Castle, Nov. 17, 1796. 

Of his offer to establish a communication from the coast 
of Cork to Dublin, at his own expense, no notice was 
taken. " He had, as was known to Government, ex- 
pended ^500 of his own money ; as much more would 
have erected a temporary establishment for a year to 
Cork. Thus the utility of this invention might have been 
tried, and the most prudent government upon earth 
could not have accused itself of extravagance in being 
partner with a private gentleman in an experiment which 
had, with inferior apparatus, and at four times the ex- 
pense, been tried in France and England, and approved." 
The most favorable supposition by which we can account 
for the conduct of the Irish Government in this business 
is that a superior influence in England forbade them to 
proceed. " It must," said my father, " be mortifying to 
a viceroy who comes over to Ireland with enlarged views 
and benevolent intentions, to discover, when he attempts 
to act for himself, that he is peremptorily checked ; that 
a circle is chalked round him, beyond which he cannot 
move." 

No personal feelings of pique or disgust prevented my 
father from renewing his efforts to be of service to his 
country. Two months after the rejection of his telegraph, 
on Friday the 30th of December, 1 796, the French were 
on the Irish coasts. Of this he received intelligence late 
at night. Immediately he sent a servant express to the 
Secretary, with a letter offering to erect telegraphs, which 



TELEGRAPH, 131 

he had in Dublin, on any line that Government should 
direct, and proposing to bring his own men with him ; 
or to join the army with his portable telegraphs, to re- 
connoitre. His servant was sent back with a note from 
the Secretary, containing compliments and the promise 
of a speedy answer : no further answer ever reached him. 
Upon this emergency he could, with the assistance of his 
friends, have established an immediate communication 
between Dublin and the coast, which should not have cost 
the country one shilling. My father showed no mortifi- 
cation at the neglect with which he was treated, but 
acknowledged that he felt much " concern in losing an 
opportunity of saving an enormous expense to the public, 
and of alleviating the anxiety and distress of thousands.'* 
A telegraph was most earnestly wished for at this time by 
the best-informed people in Ireland, as well as by those 
whose perceptions had suddenly quickened at the view 
of immediate danger. Great distress, bankruptcies, and 
ruin to many families, were the consequences of this 
attempted invasion The troops were harassed with con- 
trary orders and forced marches, for want of intelligence, 
and from that indecision which must always be the con- 
sequence of insufficient information. Many days were 
spent in terror and in fruitless wishes for the English 
fleet. One fact may mark the hurry and confusion of 
the time ; the cannon and the ball sent to Bantry Bay 
were of different calibre. At last Ireland was providen- 
tially saved by the change of wind, which prevented the 
enemy from effecting a landing on her coast. 

That the public will feel little interest in the danger 
of an invasion of Ireland which might have happened 
in the last century ; that it can be of little consequence 
to the public to hear how or why, twenty years ago, this or 



132 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

that man's telegraph was not established, — I am aware ; 
and I am sensible that few will care how cheaply it 
might have been obtained, or will be greatly interested 
in hearing of generous offers which were not accepted, 
and patriotic exertions which were not permitted to be 
of any national utility. I know that as a biographer I 
am expected to put private feelings out of the question ; 
and this duty, as far as human nature will permit, I hope 
I have performed. 

The facts are stated from my own knowledge, and 
from a more detailed account in his own " Letter to Lord 
Charlemont on the Telegraph," — a political pamphlet, 
uncommon at least for its temperate and good-humored 
tone. 

Though all his exertions to establish a telegraph in Ire- 
land were at this time unsuccessful, yet he persevered in 
the belief that in future modes of telegraphic communi- 
cation would be generally adopted ; and instead of his 
hopes being depressed, they were raised and expanded 
by new consideration of the subject in a scientific light. 
In the sixth volume of the "Transactions of the Royal 
Irish Academy," he published an " Essay on the Art of Con- 
veying Swift and Secret Intelligence," in which he gives a 
comprehensive view of the uses to which the system may 
be applied, and a description, with plates, of his own 
machinery. Accounts of his apparatus and specimens 
of his vocabulary have been copied into various popular 
publications, therefore it is sufficient here to refer to 
them. The peculiar advantages of his machinery con- 
sist, in the first place, in being as free from friction as 
possible, consequently in its being easily moved, and not 
easily destroyed by use ; in the next place, on its being 
simple, consequently easy to make and to repair. The 



ENGLISH TELEGRAPH. 1 33 

superior advantage of his vocabulary arises from its being 
undecipherable. This depends on his employing the 
numerical figures instead of the alphabet. With a power 
of almost infinite change, and consequently with defiance 
of detection, he applies the combination of numerical 
figures to the words of a common dictionary, or to any 
length of phrase in any given vocabulary. He was the 
first who made this application of figures to telegraphic 
communication. 

Much has been urged by various modern claimants 
for the honor of the invention of the telegraph. In 
England the claims of Dr. Hooke and of the Marquis 
of Worcester to the original idea are incontestable. But 
the invention long lay dormant, till wakened into active 
service by the French. Long before the French tele- 
graph appeared, my father had tried his first telegraphic 
experiments. As he mentions in his own narrative, he 
tried the use of windmill sails in 1767 in Berkshire; and 
also a nocturnal telegraph with lamps and illuminated 
letters, between London and Hampstead. He refers for 
the confirmation of the facts to a letter of Mr. Perrot's, 
a Berkshire gentleman who was with him at the time. 
The original of this letter is now in my possession. It 
was shown in 1 795 to the President of the Royal Irish 
Academy. The following is a copy of it : — 

Dear Sir, — I perfectly recollect having several con- 
versations with you in 1767 on the subject of a speedy 
and secret conveyance of intelligence. I recollect your 
going up the hills to see how far and how distinctly the 
arms (and the position of them) of Nettlebed Windmill 
sails were to be discovered with ease. 

As to the experiments from Highgate to London by 



134 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

means of lamps, I was not present at the time, but 1 
remember your mentioning the circumstance to me in 
the same year. All these particulars were brought very 
strongly to my memory when the French, some years ago, 
conveyed intelligence by signals ; and I then thought 
and declared that the merit of the invention undoubtedly 
belonged to you. I am very glad that I have it in my 
power to send you this confirmation, because I imagine 
there is no other person now living who can bear witness 
to your observations in Berkshire. 
I remain, dear Sir, 

Your affectionate friend, 

James L. Perrot. 
Bath, Dec. 9, 1795. 

Claims of priority of invention are always listened to 
with doubt, or, at best, with impatience. To those who 
bring the invention to perfection, who actually adapt it 
to use, mankind are justly most grateful, and to these, 
rather than to the original inventors, grant the honors 
of a triumph. Sensible of this, the matter is urged no 
farther, but left to the justice of posterity. 

I am happy to state, however, one plain fact, which 
stands independent of all controversy, that my father's 
was the first, and I believe the only, telegraph which ever 
spoke across the Channel from Ireland to Scotland. He 
was, as he says in his essay on this subject, " ambitious 
of being the first person who should connect the islands 
more closely by facilitating their mutual intercourse ; " 
and on the 24th of August, 1794, my brothers had the 
satisfaction of sending by my father's telegraph four mes- 
sages across the Channel, and of receiving immediate 
answers, before a vast concourse of spectators. 



DR. DARWIN. 135 

Edgeworth to Dr. Darwin. 

Edgeworthtown, Dec. 11, 1794. 

I have been employed for two months in experiments 
upon a telegraph of my own invention. I tried it par- 
tially twenty-six years ago It differs from the French in 
distinctness and expedition, as the intelligence is not con- 
veyed alphabetically. . . . 

I intended to detail my telegraphs (in the plural), 
but I find that I have not room at present. If you think 
it worth while, you shall have the whole scheme before 
you, which I know you will improve for me. Suffice it, 
that by day, at eighteen or twenty miles' distance, I show, 
by four pointers, isosceles triangles, twenty feet high, on 
four imaginary circles, eight imaginary points, which cor- 
respond with the figures 

o, i> 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 
So that seven thousand different combinations are formed, 
of four figures each, which refer to a dictionary of words 
that are referred to, — of lists of the navy, army, militia, 
lords, commons, geographical and technical terms, &c, 
besides an alphabet. So that everything one wishes may 
be transmitted with expedition. 

By night, white lights are used. 

Dr. Darwin to Mr. Edgeworth. 

Derby, March 15, 1795. 
Dear Sir, — I beg your pardon for not immediately an- 
swering your last favor, which was owing to the great in- 
fluence the evil demon has at present in all affairs on this 
earth. That is, I lost your letter, and have in vain looked 
over some scores of papers, and cannot find it. Sec 



I36 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

ondly, having lost your letter, I daily hoped to find it 
again — without success. 

The telegraph you described I dare say would answer 
the purpose. It would be like a giant wielding his long 
arms and talking with his fingers ; and those long arms 
might be covered with lamps in the night. You would 
place four or six such gigantic figures in a line, so that 
they should spell a whole word at once ; and other such 
figures in sight of each other, all round the coast of Ire- 
land ; and thus fortify yourselves, instead of Friar Bacon's 
wall of brass round England, with the brazen head, which 
spoke, " Time is ! Time was ! Time is past ! " 



MR. EDGEWORTH'S MACHINE. 

Having slightly mentioned the contrivances made use 
of by the ancients for conveying intelligence swiftly, and 
having pointed out some of the various important uses to 
which this art may be applied, I shall endeavor to give a 
clear view of my attempts on this subject. 

Models of the French telegraph have been so often 
exhibited, and the machine itself is so well known, that it 
is not necessary to describe it minutely in this place. It 
is sufficient to say that it consists of a tall pole, with three 
movable arms, which may be seen at a considerable dis- 
tance through telescopes ; these arms may be set in as 
many different positions as are requisite to express all the 
different letters of the alphabet. By a successive combi- 
nation of letters shown in this manner, words and sen- 
tences are formed and intelligence communicated. No 
doubt can be made of the utility of this machine, as it has 
been applied to the most important purposes. It is ob' 



TELLOGRAPH. 1 37 

viously liable to mistakes, from the number of changes 
requisite for each word, and from the velocity with which 
it must be moved to convey intelligence with any tol- 
erable expedition. 

The name, however, which is well chosen, has become 
so familiar, that I shall, with a slight alteration, adopt it 
for the apparatus which I am going to describe. Tele- 
graph is a proper name for a machine which describes 
at a distance. Telelograph, or contractedly Tellograph, is 
a proper name for a machine that describes words at a 
distance. 

Dr. Hooke, to whom every mechanic philosopher 
must recur, has written an essay upon the subject of con- 
veying swift intelligence, in which he proposes to use large 
wooden letters in succession. The siege of Vienna turned 
his attention to the business. His method is more cum- 
brous than the French telegraph, but far less liable to 
error. 

I tried it before I had seen Hooke's work, in the year 
1767 in London, and I could distinctly read letters illu- 
minated with lamps in Hampstead Churchyard, from the 
house of Mr. Elers in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, to 
whom I refer for date and circumstance. To him and to 
Mr. E. Delaval, F.R.S., to Mr. Perrot, of Hare Hatch, 
and to Mr Woulfe the chemist, I refer for the precedency 
which I claim in this invention. In that year I invented 
the idea of my present tellograph, proposing to make use 
of windmill sails instead of the hands or pointers which 
I now employ. Mr. Perrot was so good as to accompany 
me more than once to a hill near his house to observe 
with a telescope the windmill at Nettlebed, which places 
are, I think, sixteen miles asunder. My intention at that 
time was to convey not only a swift but an unsuspected 



138 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

mode of intelligence. By means of common windmills 
this might have been effected, before an 'account of the 
French telegraph was made public. 

My machinery consists of four triangular pointers or 
hands [each upon a separate pedestal, ranged along in a 
row], each of which points like the hand of a clock to dif- 
ferent situations in the circles which they describe. It 
is easy to distinguish whether a hand moving vertically 
points perpendicularly downwards or upwards, horizontally 
to the right or left, or to any of the four intermediate 
positions. 

The eye can readily perceive the eight different posi- 
tions in which one of the pointers is represented [on the 
plate attached to the article in the " Transactions," but here 
omitted]. Of these eight positions seven only are employed 
to denote figures, the upright position of the hand or pointer 
being reserved to represent o, or zero. The figures thus 
denoted refer to a vocabulary in which all the words are 
numbered. Of the four pointers, that which appears to 
the left hand of the observer represents thousands ; the 
others hundreds, tens, and units, in succession, as in com- 
mon numeration. 

[By these means, as Mr. Edgeworth showed, numbers 
from 1 up to 7,777, omitting those having a digit above 7, 
could be displayed to the distant observer, who on refer- 
ring to his vocabulary discovered that they meant such 
expressions as it might seem convenient to transmit by 
this excellent invention. ] 

Although the electric telegraphs have long since super- 
seded telegraphs of this class in public use, the young 
people of Colonel Ingham's class took great pleasure in 
the next summer in using Mr. Edgeworth's telegraph to 



HOME TELEGEAPHY. 1 39 

communicate with each other, by plans easily made in 
their different country homes. 

It may interest the casual reader to know that the first 
words in the first message transmitted on the telegraph 
between Scotland and Ireland, alluded to above, were 
represented by the numbers 2,645, 2 >33 1 ^ 573> I > II 3? 
244, 2,411, 6,336, which being interpreted are, — 

" Hark from basaltic rocks and giant walls," 

and so on with the other lines, seven in number. This Is 
Mr. Edgeworth's concise history of telegraphy before his 
time. 

The art of conveying intelligence by sounds and signals 
is of the highest antiquity. It was practised by Theseus in 
the Argonautic expedition, by Agamemnon at the siege 
of Troy, and by Mardonius in the time of Xerxes. It is 
mentioned frequently in Thucydides. It was used by 
Tamerlane, who had probably never heard of the black 
sails of Theseus ; by the Moors in Spain ; by the Welsh 
in Britain ; by the Irish ; and by the Chinese on that famous 
wall by which they separated themselves from Tartary. 



All this detail about Mr. Edgeworth's telegraph resulted 
in much search in the older encyclopaedias. Quite full 
accounts were found, by the young people, of his system, 
and of the French system afterwards employed, and worked 
in France until the electric telegraph made all such inven- 
tions unnecessary. 

Before the next meeting, Bedford Long, who lived on 
Highland Street in Roxbury, and Hugh, who lived on 
the side of Corey Hill, were able to communicate with 
each other by semaphore ; and at the next meeting they 



140 STORIES OF INVENTION-. 

arranged two farther stations, so that John, at Cambridge, 
and Jane Fortescue, at Lexington, were in the series. 

There being some half an hour left that afternoon, the 
children amused themselves by looking up some other of 
Mr. Edgeworth's curious experiments and vagaries. 



MORE OF MR. EDGEWORTH'S FANCIES. 

During my residence at Hare Hatch another wager 
was proposed by me among our acquaintance, the pur- 
port of which was that I undertook to find a man who 
should, with the assistance of machinery, walk faster than 
any other person that could be produced. The machinery 
which I intended to employ was a huge hollow wheel, 
made very light, withinside of which, in a barrel of six feet 
diameter, a man should walk. Whilst he stepped thirty 
inches, the circumference of the large wheel, or rather 
wheels, would revolve five feet on the ground ; and as the 
machinery was to roll on planks and on a plane somewhat 
inclined, when once the vis mertice of the machine should 
be overcome, it would carry on the man within it as fast 
as he could possibly walk. I had provided means of 
regulating the motion, so that the wheel should not run 
away with its master. I had the wheel made ; and when 
it was so nearly completed as to require but a few hours' 
work to finish it, I went to London for Lord Effingham, 
to whom I had promised that he should be present at the 
first experiment made with it. But the bulk and extraor- 
dinary appearance of my machine had attracted the no- 
tice of the country neighborhood ; and, taking advantage 
of my absence, some idle curious persons went to the 
carpenter I employed, who lived on Hare Hatch Com- 



SAILING-CARRIA GE. 1 4 1 

mon. From him they obtained the great wheel which 
had been left by me in his care. It was not finished. 
I had not yet furnished it with the means of stopping 
or moderating its motion. A young lad got into it ; his 
companions launched it on a path which led gently down 
hill towards a very steep chalk-pit. This pit was at such 
a distance as to be out of their thoughts when they set the 
wheel in motion. On it ran. The lad withinside plied his 
legs with all his might. The spectators, who at first stood 
still to behold the operation, were soon alarmed by the 
shouts of their companion, who perceived his danger. The 
vehicle became quite ungovernable ; the velocity increased 
as it ran down hill. Fortunately the boy contrived to jump 
from his rolling prison before it reached the chalk-pit ; but 
the wheel went on with such velocity as to outstrip its 
pursuers, and, rolling over the edge of the precipice, it was 
dashed to pieces. 

The next day, when 1 came to look for my machine, in- 
tending to try it on some planks which had been laid for 
it, I found, to my no small disappointment, that the object 
of all my labors and my hopes was lying at the bottom of 
a chalk-pit, broken into a thousand pieces. I could not 
at that time afford to construct another wheel of this sort, 
and I cannot therefore determine what might have been 
the success of my scheme. 

As I am on the subject of carriages, I shall mention 
a sailing- carriage that I tried on this common. The 
carriage was light, steady, and ran with amazing velocity. 
One day, when I was preparing for a sail in it with my 
friend and schoolfellow Mr. William Foster, my wheel- 
boat escaped from its moorings just as we were going to 
step on board. With the utmost difficulty I overtook it ; 
and as I saw three or four stage-coaches on the road, and 



142 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

feared that this sailing-chariot might frighten their horses, 
I, at the hazard of my life, got into my carriage while it was 
under full sail, and then, at a favorable part of the road, I 
used the means I had of guiding it easily out of the way. 
But the sense of the mischief which must have ensued if 
I had not succeeded in getting into the machine at the 
proper place and stopping it at the right moment was so 
strong as to deter me from trying any more experiments 
on this carriage in such a dangerous place. 

Such should never be attempted except on a large com- 
mon, at a distance from a high road. It may not, however, 
be amiss to suggest that upon a long extent of iron rail- 
way in an open country carriages properly constructed 
might make profitable voyages, from time to time, with 
sails instead of horses ; for though a constant or regular 
intercourse could not be thus carried on, yet goods of a 
certain sort, that are salable at any time, might be stored 
till wind and weather were favorable. 

When Bedford had read this passage, John Fordyce said 
he had travelled hundreds of miles on the Western rail- 
ways where Mr. Edgeworth's sails could have been applied 
without a " stage-coach " to be afraid of them. 



JACK THE DARTER. 

In one of my journeys from Hare Hatch to Birming- 
ham, I accidentally met with a person whom I, as a me- 
chanic, had a curiosity to see. This was a sailor, who 
had amused London with a singular exhibition of dexterity. 
He was called Jack the Darter. He threw his darts, 



JACK THE DARTER. 1 43 

which consisted of thin rods of deal of about half an inch 
in diameter and of a yard long, to an amazing height and 
distance ; for instance, he threw them over what was then 
called the New Church in the Strand. Of this feat I had 
heard, but I entertained some doubts upon the subject. 
I had inquired from my friends where this man could be 
found, but had not been able to discover him. As I was 
driving towards Birmingham in an open carriage of a sin- 
gular construction, I overtook a man who walked remark- 
ably fast, but who stopped as I passed him, and eyed my 
equipage with uncommon curiosity. There was some- 
thing in his manner that made me speak to him ; and 
from the sort of questions he asked about my carriage, I 
found that he was a clever fellow. I soon learned that he 
had walked over the greatest part of England, and that he 
was perfectly acquainted with London. It came into my 
head to inquire whether he had ever seen the exhibition 
about which I was so desirous to be informed. 

"Lord ! sir," said he, " I am myself Jack the Darter." 
He had a roll of brown paper in his hand, which he 
unfolded, and soon produced a bundle of the light deal 
sticks which he had the power of darting to such a dis- 
tance. He readily consented to gratify my curiosity ; and 
after he had thrown some of them to a prodigious height, 
I asked him to throw some of them horizontally. At the 
first trial he threw one of them eighty yards with great 
ease. I observed that he coiled a small string round the 
stick, by which he gave it a rotary motion that preserved 
it from altering its course ; and at the same time it allowed 
the arm which threw it time to exercise its whole force. 

If anything be simply thrown from the hand, it is clear 
that it can acquire no greater velocity than that of the 
hand that throws it ; but if the body that is thrown passes 



144 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

through a greater space than the hand, whilst the hand 
continues to communicate motion to the body to be im- 
pelled, the body will acquire a velocity nearly double to 
that of the hand which throws it. The ancients were 
aware of this ; and they wrapped a thong of leather round 
their javelins, by which they could throw them with addi- 
tional violence. This invention did not, I believe, belong 
to the Greeks ; nor do I remember its being mentioned 
by Homer or Xenophon. It was in use among the Ro- 
mans, but at what time it was introduced or laid aside I 
know not. Whoever is acquainted with the science of 
projectiles will perceive that this invention is well worthy 
of their attention. 



A ONE-WHEELED CHAISE. 

After having satisfied my curiosity about Jack the 
Darter, I proceeded to Birmingham. I mentioned that I 
travelled in a carriage of a singular construction. It was 
a one-wheeled chaise, which I had had made for the pur- 
pose of going conveniently in narrow roads. It was made 
fast by shafts to the horse's sides, and was furnished with two 
weights or counterpoises, that hung below the shafts. The 
seat was not more than eight and twenty or thirty inches 
from the ground, in order to bring the centre of gravity 
of the whole as low as possible. The footboard turned 
upon hinges fastened to the shafts, so that when it met 
with any obstacle it gave way, and my legs were warned 
to lift themselves up. In going through water my legs 
were secured by leathers, which folded up like the sides 
of bellows \ by this means I was pretty safe from wet. On 



ONE-WHEELED GIG. 1 45 

my road to Birmingham I passed through Long Compton, 
in Warwickshire, on a Sunday. The people were return- 
ing from church, and numbers stopped to gaze at me. 
There is, or was, a shallow ford near the town, over which 
there was a very narrow bridge for horse and foot pas- 
sengers, but not sufficiently wide for wagons or chaises. 
Towards this bridge I drove. The people, not perceiving 
the structure of my one-wheeled vehicle, called to me with 
great eagerness to warn me that the bridge was too nar- 
row for carriages. I had an excellent horse, which went 
so fast as to give but little time for examination. The 
louder they called, the faster I drove ; and when I had 
passed the bridge, they shouted after me with surprise. I 
got on to Shipstone upon Stone ; but before I had dined 
there I found that my fame had overtaken me. My car- 
riage was put into a coach-house, so that those who came 
from Long Compton, not seeing it, did not recognize me. 
I therefore had an opportunity of hearing all the exaggera- 
tions and strange conjectures which were made by those 
who related my passage over the narrow bridge. There 
were posts on the bridge, to prevent, as I suppose, more 
than one horseman from passing at once. Some of the 
spectators asserted that my carriage had gone over these 
posts ; others said that it had not wheels, which was in- 
deed literally true ; but they meant to say that it was 
without any wheel. Some were sure that no carriage 
ever went so fast ; and all agreed that at the end of the 
bridge, where the floods had laid the road for some way 
under water, my carriage swam on the surface of the 
water. 



VIII. 

JAMES WATT. 

"T TNCLE FRITZ," said Mabel Liddell, the next after- 

^ noon that our friends had gathered together for a 
reading, " would it not be well for us all to go down into 
the kitchen this afternoon, and watch the steam come out 
of the kettle as Ellen makes tea for us? " 

" Why should it be well, Mabel ? " said Colonel Ing- 
ham. " For my part, I should prefer to remain in my own 
room, more especially as I consider my armchair to be 
more suited to the comfort of one already on the down- 
ward path in life than is the kitchen table, where we should 
have to sit should we invade the premises of our friends 
below." 

"I was thinking," said Mabel, "of the manner in which 
James Watt when a child invented the steam-engine, 
from observing the motion of the top of the teakettle ; 
and as we are to read about Watt this afternoon I thought 
we might be in a more fit condition to understand his 
invention, and might more fully comprehend his frame of 
mind while perfecting his great work, should we also fix 
our eyes and minds on the top of the teakettle in Ellen's 
kitchen." 

" Mabel, my child," said Uncle Fritz, " you talk like 
a book, and a very interesting one at that ; but I think, 
as the youngest of us would say, that you are just a little 



WATT AND WATTS. 1 47 

off in your remarks. And as I observe that Clem, who is 
going to read this afternoon, desires to deliver a sermon 
of which your conversation seems to be the text, I will 
request all to listen to him before we consider seriously 
vacating this apartment, however poor it may be," — and 
he glanced fondly around at the comfortable arrangements 
that everywhere pervaded the study, — " and seek the 
regions below." 

" I only wanted to say," began Clem, " that although 
Watt did on one occasion (in his extreme youth) look at a 
teakettle with some interest, he was not in the habit, at the 
time when he devoted most thought to the steam-engine, 
of having a teakettle continually before him that he might 
gain inspiration from observing the steam issue from its 
nose. And, as Watt dispensed with this aid, I have no 
doubt that we may do so as well, contenting ourselves 
with the results of the experiments in the vaporization of 
water, which Ellen is now conducting in the form of tea. 
Besides all this, however, I do want to say some things, 
before we read aloud this afternoon (I hope this is n't 
really too much like a sermon), about the steam-engine 
and the part that Watt had in perfecting it." 

At this point the irrepressible Mabel was heard to whis- 
per to Bedford, who sat next her : " Was n't it curious that 
the same mind which grasped the immense capabilities 
of the steam-engine should have been able also to con- 
struct such a delicate lyric as 

1 How doth the little busy bee 
Improve each shining hour ' ? " 

"Mabel," said Colonel Ingham, "you are absolutely 
unbearable. If you do not keep in better order I shall be 
sorry that I dissuaded you from descending to the kitchen. 



I48 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

I see nothing incongruous myself in indulging in mechan- 
ical experiments, and in throwing one's thoughts into the 
form of verse," — here the old gentleman colored slightly, 
as though he recollected something of the sort, — " but it 
may be well to counteract the impression your conversation 
may have made by stating that Isaac Watts did not invent 
the steam-engine, nor did James Watt write the beautiful 
words you have just quoted. — Now, Clem, I believe you 
have the floor." 

" Well," said Clem, " I only want the floor for a short 
time in order to explain about Watt and the steam-engine, 
and how much he was the inventor of it, before we begin 
to read. 

u There are various points about the steam-engine which 
are really Watt's invention, — the separate condenser, 
for instance, — but the idea of the steam-engine was not 
original with him ; that is, when he saw the steam in the 
teakettle raise the lid and drop it again, he was not the 
first to speculate on the power of steam." 

{t Are you going to read us that part in the book, Clem ? " 
asked Bedford, with some interest. 

" Yes, if you like," said Clem. " I guess it tells about it 
in Mr. Smiles's ' Life of Watt.' " So he began to over- 
haul the book he had brought, and shortly discovered the 
anecdote referred to by Mabel with such interest, and 
read it. 

" On one occasion he [James Watt] was reproved by 
Mrs. Muirhead, his aunt, for his indolence at the tea-table. 
'James Watt,' said the worthy lady, 'I never saw such 
an idle boy as you are. Take a book, or employ yourself 
usefully ; for the last hour you have not spoken one word, 
but taken off the lid of that kettle and put it on again, 
holding now a cup and now a silver spoon over the steam, 



EARLY STEAM-ENGINES. 1 49 

watching how it rises from the spout, catching and count- 
ing the drops it falls into.' In the view of M. Arago, 
the little James before the teakettle, becomes the great 
engineer, preparing the discoveries which were soon to 
immortalize him. In our opinion, the judgment of the 
aunt was the truest. There is no reason to suppose that 
the mind of the boy was occupied with philosophical theo- 
ries on the condensation of steam, which he compassed 
with so much difficulty in his maturer years. This is more 
probably an afterthought borrowed from his subsequent 
discoveries. Nothing is commoner than for children to 
be amused with such phenomena in the same way that 
they will form air-bubbles in a cup of tea, and watch them 
sailing over the surface till they burst. The probability is 
that little James was quite as idle as he seemed." 

" That is very interesting," remarked Mabel. u Don't 
you think now, Uncle Fritz, we had better go into the 
kitchen?" And she looked appealingly at the old gen- 
tleman, who merely held up his finger for silence as Clem 
continued his lecture. 

"What I meant to say," Clem went on, " was that other 
people before Watt had found out the power of steam, and 
had used it too. There was one Hero of Alexandria, who 
lived about two thousand years ago, who used steam for 
many interesting purposes, notably for animating various 
figures that took part in the idolatrous worship of his time, 
and thus in deceiving the common people. But his con- 
trivances, though engines which went by steam, would 
hardly be called steam-engines. Between Hero of Alex- 
andria, of 160 B.C., and the Marquis of Worcester, of 
1650 a. d., there does not seem to have been much doing 
in the way of inventing the steam-engine. But the Mar- 
quis of Worcester in Charles II.'s time was a great phi- 



150 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

losopher, and did nobody knows exactly what with steam. 
But though he did great things, he did not produce a 
particularly capable engine, though he seems to have 
known more about steam than anybody else did at his 
time. After the Marquis of Worcester and before Watt, 
there were three men who did much towards inventing 
and improving the steam-engine. Their names were 
Savery, Papin, and Newcomen. I don't propose to 
tell you about the inventions of each one ; but it 's 
well enough to remember that each one did important 
service in getting the steam-engine to the point where 
Watt took hold of it. As it was on Newcomen 's engine 
that Watt made his first serious experiments, I think we 
should all like to know something about it." 



THE NEWCOMEN ENGINE. 

Newcomen's engine may be thus briefly described : The 
steam was generated in a separate boiler, as in Savery's 
engine, from which it was conveyed into a vertical cylin- 
der underneath a piston fitting it closely, but movable 
upwards and downwards through its whole length. The 
piston was fixed to a rod, which was attached by a joint 
or chain to the end of a lever vibrating upon an axis, the 
other end being attached to a rod working a pump. 
When the piston in the cylinder was raised, steam was 
let into the vacated space through a tube fitted into the 
top of the boiler, and mounted with a stopcock. The 
pump-rod at the further end of the lever being thus de- 
pressed, cold water was applied to the sides of the cyl- 
inder, on which the steam within it was condensed, a 
vacuum was produced, and the external air, pressing 



NEWCOMEN'S PLANS. 151 

upon the top of the piston, forced it down into the empty 
cylinder. The pump-rod was thereby raised ; and, the 
operation of depressing it being repeated, a power was 
thus produced which kept the pump continuously at work. 
Such, in a few words, was the construction and action of 
Newcomen's first engine. 1 

While the engine was still in its trial state, a curious ac- 
cident occurred which led to a change in the mode of 
condensation, and proved of essential importance in es- 
tablishing Newcomen's engine as a practical working 
power. The accident was this : in order to keep the cyl- 
inder as free from air as possible, great pains were taken 
to prevent it passing down by the side of the piston, which 
was carefully wrapped with cloth or leather; and, still 
further to keep the cylinder air-tight, a quantity of water 
was kept constantly on the upper side of the piston. At 
one of the early trials the inventors were surprised to 
see the engine make several strokes in unusually quick 
succession ; and on searching for the cause, they found it 
to consist in a hole in the piston, which had let the cold 
water in a jet into the inside of the cylinder, and thereby 
produced a rapid vacuum by the condensation of the 
continued steam. A new light suddenly broke upon 
Newcomen. The idea of condensing by injection of cold 
water directly into the cylinder, instead of applying it on 
the outside, at once occurred to him ; and he proceeded 
to embody the expedient which had thus been acciden- 
tally suggested as part of his machine. The result was 

1 The first steam-engines were devised in order to supply some motor 
for the pumps which were necessary, all over England, to keep the mines 
free from water. The locomotive engine, as will be seen later, owes its 
birth to the efforts of colliery engineers to find some means of drawing coal 
better than the horse-power generally in use. 



152 STORIES of invention: 

the addition of the injection pipe, through which, when 
the piston was raised and the cylinder full of steam, a jet 
of cold water was thrown in, and, the steam being sud- 
denly condensed, the piston was at once driven down by 
the pressure of the atmosphere. 

An accident of a different kind shortly after led to the 
improvement of Newcomen's engine in another respect. 
To keep it at work, one man was required to attend the 
fire, and another to turn alternately the two cocks, one 
admitting the steam into the cylinder, the other admitting 
the jet of cold water to condense it. The turning of these 
cocks was easy work, usually performed by a boy. It was, 
however, a very monotonous duty, though requiring con- 
stant attention. To escape the drudgery and obtain an 
interval for rest or perhaps for play, a boy named 
Humphrey Potter, who turned the cocks, set himself to 
discover some method of evading his task. He must 
have been an ingenious boy, as is clear from the arrange- 
ment he contrived with this object. Observing the alter- 
nate ascent and descent of the beam above his head, he 
bethought him of applying the movement to the alternate 
raising and lowering of the levers which governed the 
cocks. The result was the contrivance of what he called 
the scoggan (meaning presumably the loafer or lazy boy), 
consisting of a catch worked by strings from the beam of 
the engine. This arrangement, when tried, was found to 
answer the purpose intended. The action of the engine 
was thus made automatic ; and the arrangement, though 
rude, not only enabled Potter to enjoy his play, but it had 
the effect of improving the working power of the engine 
itself; the number of strokes which it made being in- 
creased from six or eight to fifteen or sixteen in the min- 
ute. This invention was afterward greatly improved by 



GRADUAL IMPROVEMENT. 153 

Mr. Henry Beighton, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, who added 
the plug-rod and hand-gear. He did away with the 
catches and strings of the boy Potter's rude apparatus, 
and substituted a rod suspended from the beam, which 
alternately opened and shut the tappets attached to the 
steam and injection cocks. 

Thus, step by step, Newcomen's engine grew in power 
and efficiency, and became more and more complete as a 
self-acting machine. It will be observed that, like all 
other inventions, it was not the product of any one man's 
ingenuity, but of many. One contributed one improve- 
ment, and another another. The essential features of the 
atmospheric engine were not new. The piston and cylin- 
der had been known as long ago as the time of Hero. 
The expansive force of steam and the creation of a vac- 
uum by its condensation had been known to the Marquis 
of Worcester, Savery, Papin, and many more. Newcomen 
merely combined in his machine the result of their varied 
experience ; and, assisted by the persons who worked with 
him, down to the engine-boy Potter, he advanced the in- 
vention several important stages ; so that the steam-engine 
was no longer a toy or a scientific curiosity, but had be' 
come a powerful machine capable of doing useful work. 



JAMES WATT AND THE STEAM-ENGINE. 

It was in the year 1759 that Robison 1 first called the 
attention of his friend Watt to the subject of the steam- 
engine. Robison was then only in his twentieth, and 

1 John Robison, at this time a student at Glasgow College, and after- 
wards Professor of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh. He was at one time 
Master of the Marine Cadet Academy at Cronstadt. 



154 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

Watt in his twenty-third year. Robison's idea was that 
the power of steam might be advantageously applied to 
the driving of wheel-carriages ; and he suggested that it 
would be the most convenient for the purpose to place 
the cylinder with its open end downwards to avoid the 
necessity of using a working-beam. Watt admits that he 
was very ignorant of the steam-engine at the time ; never- 
theless, he began making a model with two cylinders of 
tin plate, intending that the pistons and their connecting- 
rods should act alternately on two pinions attached to the 
axles of the carriage-wheels. But the model, being slightly 
and inaccurately made, did not answer his expectations. 
Other difficulties presented themselves, and the scheme 
was laid aside because Robison left Glasgow to go to sea. 
Indeed, mechanical science was not yet ripe for the loco- 
motive. Robison's idea had, however, dropped silently 
into the mind of his friend, where it grew from day to day, 
slowly and at length fruitfully. 

At his intervals of leisure and in the quiet of his even- 
ings, Watt continued to prosecute his various studies. He 
was shortly attracted by the science of chemistry, then in 
its infancy. Dr. Black was at that time occupied with the 
investigations which led to his discovery of the theory of 
latent heat, and it is probable that his familiar conversations 
with Watt on the subject induced the latter to enter upon 
a series of experiments with the view of giving the theory 
some practical direction. His attention again and again 
reverted to the steam-engine, though he had not yet seen 
even a model of one. Steam was as yet almost unknown 
in Scotland as a working power. The first engine was 
erected at Elphinstone Colliery, in Stirlingshire, about the 
year 1750; and the second more than ten years later, at 
Govan Colliery, near Glasgow, where it was known by the 



WATT'S EXPERIMENTS. 1 55 

startling name of "The Firework." This had not, how- 
ever, been set up at the time Watt had begun to inquire 
into the subject. But he found that the college possessed 
the model of a Newcomen engine for the use of the Nat- 
ural Philosophy class, which had been sent to London for 
repair. On hearing of its existence, he suggested to his 
friend Dr. Anderson, Professor of Natural Philosophy, the 
propriety of getting back the model ; and a sum of money 
was placed by the Senatus at the professor's disposal, " to 
recover the steam-engine from Mr. Sisson, instrument- 
maker in London." 

In the mean time Watt sought to learn all that had been 
written on the subject of the steam-engine. He ascer- 
tained from Desaguliers, Switzer, and other writers, what 
had been accomplished by Savery, Newcomen, Beighton, 
and others; and he went on with his own independent 
experiments. His first apparatus was of the simplest pos- 
sible kind. He used common apothecaries' phials for his 
steam reservoirs, and canes hollowed out for his steam- 
pipes. In 1 761 he proceeded to experiment on the force 
of steam by means of a small Papin's digester and a syringe. 
The syringe was only the third of an inch in diameter, fitted 
with a solid piston ; and it was connected with the digester 
by a pipe furnished with a stopcock, by which the steam 
was admitted or shut off at will. It was also itself provided 
with a stopcock, enabling a communication to be opened 
between the syringe and the outer air to permit the steam 
in the syringe to escape. The apparatus, though rude, 
enabled the experimenter to ascertain some important 
facts. When the steam in the digester was raised and the 
cock turned, enabling it to rush against the lower side of 
the piston, he found that the expansive force of the steam 
raised a weight of fifteen pounds, with which the piston 



156 STORIES OF INVENTION-. 

was loaded. Then on turning on the cock and shutting off 
the connection with the digester at the same time that a 
passage was opened to the air, the steam was allowed to 
escape, when the weight upon the piston, being no longer 
counteracted, immediately forced it to descend. 

Watt saw that it would be easy to contrive that the 
cocks should be turned by the machinery itself with per- 
fect regularity. But there was an objection to this method. 
Water is converted into vapor as soon as its elasticity is 
sufficient to overcome the weight of the air which keeps it 
down. Under the ordinary pressure of the atmosphere 
water acquires this necessary elasticity at 212 ; but as the 
steam in the digester was prevented from escaping, it ac- 
quired increased heat, and by consequence increased elas- 
ticity. Hence it was that the steam which issued from the 
digester was not only able to support the piston and the 
air which pressed upon its upper surface, but the additional 
load with which the piston was weighted. With the im- 
perfect mechanical construction, however, of those days, 
there was a risk lest the boiler should be burst by the 
steam, which was apt to force its way through the ill-made 
joints of the machine. This, conjoined with the great ex- 
penditure of steam on the high-pressure system, led Watt 
to abandon the plan ; and the exigencies of his business 
for a time prevented him from pursuing his experiments. 

At length the Newcomen model arrived from London ; 
and in 1763 the little engine, which was destined to be- 
come so famous, was put into the hands of Watt. The 
boiler was somewhat smaller than an ordinary teakettle. 
The cylinder of the engine was only of two inches diameter 
and six inches stroke. Watt at first regarded it as merely 
" a fine plaything." It was, however, enough to set him 
upon a track of thinking which led to the most important 



LATENT HEAT. 1 57 

results. When he had repaired the model and set it to 
work, he found that the boiler, though apparently large 
enough, could not supply steam in sufficient quantity, and 
only a few strokes of the piston could be obtained, when 
the engine stopped. The fire was urged by blowing, and 
more steam was produced; but still it would not work 
properly. Exactly at the point at which another man 
would have abandoned the task in despair, the mind of 
Watt became thoroughly roused. " Everything," says 
Professor Robison, " was to him the beginning of a new 
and serious study ; and I knew that he would not quit it 
till he had either discovered its insignificance or had made 
something of it." Thus it happened with the phenomena 
presented by the model of the steam-engine. Watt re- 
ferred to his books, and endeavored to ascertain from them 
by what means he might remedy the defects which he 
found in the model ; but they could tell him nothing. He 
then proceeded with an independent course of experi- 
ments, resolved to work out the problem for himself. In 
the course of his inquiries he came upon a fact which, 
more than any other, led his mind into the train of thought 
which at last conducted him to the invention of which the 
results were destined to prove so stupendous. This fact 
was the existence of latent heat. 

In order to follow the track of investigation pursued by 
Watt, it is necessary for a moment to revert to the action 
of the Newcomen pumping-engine. A beam, moving 
upon a centre, had affixed to one end of it a chain attached 
to the piston of the pump, and at the other a chain at- 
tached to a piston that fitted into the steam- cylinder. It 
was by driving this latter piston up and down the cylinder 
that the pump was worked. To communicate the neces- 
sary movement to the piston, the steam generated in a 



I58 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

boiler was admitted to the bottom of the cylinder, forcing 
out the air through a valve, where its pressure on the under 
side of the piston counterbalanced the pressure of the at- 
mosphere on its upper side. The piston, thus placed be- 
tween two equal forces, was drawn up to the top of the 
cylinder by the greater weight of the pump-gear at the 
opposite extremity of the beam. The steam, so far, only 
discharged the office of the air it displaced ; but if the air 
had been allowed to remain, the piston once at the top of 
the cylinder could not have returned, being pressed as 
much by the atmosphere underneath as by the atmosphere 
above it. The steam, on the contrary, which was admitted 
by the exclusion of air, could be co?idensed, and a vacuum 
created, by injecting cold water through the bottom of the 
cylinder. The piston, being now unsupported, was forced 
down by the pressure of the atmosphere on its upper sur- 
face. When the piston reached the bottom, the steam was 
again let in, and the process was repeated. Such was the 
engine in ordinary use for pumping water at the time that 
Watt began his investigations. 

Among his other experiments, he constructed a boiler 
which showed by inspection the quantity of water evap- 
orated in any given time, and the quantity of steam used 
in every stroke of the engine. He was astonished to dis- 
cover that a small quantity of water in the form of steam 
heated a large quantity of cold water injected into the 
cylinder for the purpose of cooling it ; and upon further 
examination he ascertained that steam heated six times 
its weight of cold water to 212 , which was the tempera- 
ture of the steam itself. " Being struck with this remark- 
able fact," says Watt, " and not understanding the reason 
of it, I mentioned it to my friend Dr. Black, who then 
explained to me his doctrine of latent heat, which he had 



CONDENSATION. 1 59 

taught for some time before this period (the summer of 
1764) j but having myself been occupied by the pursuits 
of business, if I had heard of it I had not attended to it, 
when I thus stumbled upon one of the material facts by 
which that beautiful theory is supported." 

When Watt found that water in its conversion into 
vapor became such a reservoir of heat, he was more 
than ever bent on economizing it ; for the great waste of 
heat involving so heavy a consumption of fuel was felt to 
be the principal obstacle to the extended employment of 
steam as a motive power. He accordingly endeavored, 
with the same quantity of fuel, at once to increase the 
production of steam and to diminish its waste. He 
increased the heating surface of the boiler by making 
flues through it ; he even made his boiler of wood, as 
being a worse conductor of heat than the brickwork 
which surrounds common furnaces ; and he cased the 
cylinders and all the conducting pipes in materials which 
conducted heat very slowly. But none of these con- 
trivances were effectual ; for it turned out that the chief 
expenditure of steam, and consequently of fuel, in the 
Newcomen engine, was occasioned by the reheating of 
the cylinder after the steam had been condensed, and 
the cylinder was consequently cooled by the injection 
into it of the cold water. Nearly four fifths of the whole 
steam employed was condensed on its first admission, 
before the surplus could act upon the piston. Watt 
therefore came to the conclusion that to make a perfect 
steam-engine it was necessary that the cylinder should be 
always as hot as the steam that entered it ; but it was 
equally necessary that the steam should be condensed 
when the piston descended, nay, that it should be 
cooled down below ioo°, or a considerable amount of 



l6o STORIES OF INVENTION. 

vapor would be given off, which would resist the descent 
of the piston, and diminish the power of the engine. 
Thus the cylinder was never to be at a less temperature 
than 2i2°, and yet at each descent of the piston it was to 
be less than ioo°, — conditions which, on the very face 
of them, seemed to be wholly incompatible. 

Though still occupied with his inquiries and experi- 
ments as to steam, Watt did not neglect his proper 
business, but was constantly on the look-out for im- 
provements in instrument-making. A machine which he 
invented for drawing in perspective proved a success; 
and he made a considerable number of them to order, 
for customers in London as well as abroad. He was 
also an indefatigable reader, and continued to extend 
his knowledge of chemistry and mechanics by perusal 
of the best books on these sciences. 

Above all subjects, however, the improvement of the 
steam-engine continued to keep the fastest hold upon 
his mind. He still brooded over his experiments with 
the Newcomen model, but did not seem to make much 
way in introducing any practical improvement in its mode 
of working. His friend Robison says he struggled long 
to condense with sufficient rapidity without injection, 
trying one experiment after another, finding out what 
would not do, and exhibiting many beautiful specimens 
of ingenuity and fertility of resource. He continued, to 
use his own words, " to grope in the dark, misled by 
many an ignis fatuus." It was a favorite saying of 
his that " Nature has a weak side, if we can only find 
it out ; " and he went on groping and feeling for it, 
but as yet in vain. At length light burst upon him, 
and all at once the problem over which he had been 
brooding was solved. 



MR. HARTS RECOLLECTIONS. l6l 



THE SEPARATE CONDENSER. 

One Sunday afternoon, in the spring of 1765, he went 
to take an afternoon walk on the Green, then a quiet 
grassy meadow used as a bleaching and grazing ground. 
On week days the Glasgow lasses came thither with their 
largest kail-pots to boil their clothes in; and sturdy 
queans might be seen, with coats kilted, trampling blank- 
ets in their tubs. On Sundays the place was compara- 
tively deserted ; and hence Watt, who lived close at hand, 
went there to take a quiet afternoon stroll. His thoughts 
were as usual running on the subject of his unsatisfactory 
experiments with the Newcomen engine, when the first 
idea of the separate condenser suddenly flashed upon 
his mind. But the notable discovery is best told in his 
own words, as related to Mr. Robert Hart, many years 
after : — 

" I had gone to take a walk on a fine Sabbath after- 
noon. I had entered the Green by the gate at the foot of 
Charlotte Street, and had passed the old washing-house. 
I was thinking upon the engine at the time, and had gone 
as far as the herd's house, when the idea came into my 
mind that as the steam was an elastic body, it would rush 
into a vacuum, and if a communication were made be- 
tween the cylinder and an exhausted vessel, it would rush 
into it and might be then condensed without cooling the 
cylinder. I then saw that I must get rid of the condensed 
steam and the injection water if I used a jet, as in New- 
comen's engine. Two ways of doing this occurred to me. 
First, the water might be run off by a descending pipe, if 
an off-let could be got at the depth of 35 or 36 feet, and 
any air might be extracted by a small pump. The second 



1 62 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

was to make the pump large enough to extract both water 
and air." He continued : " I had not walked farther than 
the Golf-house when the whole thing was arranged in my 
mind." 

Great and prolific ideas are almost always simple. 
What seems impossible at the outset appears so obvious 
when it is effected, that we are prone to marvel that it did 
not force itself at once upon the mind. Late in life Watt, 
with his accustomed modesty, declared his belief that if 
he had excelled, it had been by chance, and the neglect 
of others. To Professor Jardine he said that when it 
was analyzed the invention would not appear so great as 
it seemed to be. " In the state," said he, " in which I 
found the steam-engine, it was no great effort of mind to 
observe that the quantity of fuel necessary to make it 
work would forever prevent its extensive utility. The 
next step in my progress was equally easy, — to inquire 
what was the cause of the great consumption of fuel : this, 
too, was readily suggested, viz., the waste of fuel which 
was necessary to bring the whole cylinder, piston, and 
adjacent parts from the coldness of water to the heat of 
steam, no fewer than from fifteen to twenty times in a 
minute." The question then occurred, How was this to 
be avoided or remedied? It was at this stage that the 
idea of carrying on the condensation in a separate vessel 
flashed upon his mind, and solved the difficulty. 

Mankind has been more just to Watt than he was to 
himself. There was no accident in the discovery. It had 
been the result of close and continuous study; and the 
idea of the separate condenser was merely the last step of 
a long journey, a step which could not have been taken 
unless the road which led to it had been traversed. 
Dr. Black says, " This capital improvement flashed upon 



IMPR VEMENTS. 1 6$ 

his mind at once, and filled him with rapture," — a state- 
ment which, in spite of the unimpassioned nature of Watt, 
we can readily believe. 

On the morning following his Sunday afternoon's walk 
on Glasgow Green, Watt was up betimes, making arrange- 
ments for a speedy trial of his new plan. He borrowed 
from a college friend a large brass syringe, an inch and a 
third in diameter, and ten inches long, of the kind used 
by anatomists for injecting arteries with wax previous to 
dissection. The body of the syringe served for a cylinder, 
the piston-rod passing through a collar of leather in its 
cover. A pipe connected with the boiler was inserted at 
both ends for the admission of steam, and at the upper 
end was another pipe to convey the steam to the conden- 
ser. The axis of the stem of the piston was drilled with a 
hole, fitted with a valve at its lower end, to permit the 
water produced by the condensed steam on first filling the 
cylinder to escape. The first condenser made use of was 
an improvised cistern of tinned plate, provided with a 
pump to get rid of the water formed by the condensation 
of the steam, both the condensing-pipes and the air-pump 
being placed in a reservoir of cold water. 

"The steam-pipe," says Watt, "was adjusted to a small 
boiler. When the steam was produced, it was admitted 
into the cylinder, and soon issued through the perforation 
of the rod and at the valve of the condenser ; when it was 
judged that the air was expelled, the steam-cock was shut, 
and the air-pump piston-rod was drawn up, which leaving 
the small pipes of the condenser in a state of vacuum, the 
steam entered them, and was condensed. The piston of 
the cylinder immediately rose, and lifted a weight of about 
eighteen pounds, which was hung to the lower end of the 
piston-rod. The exhaustion-cock was shut, the steam was 



1 64 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

re-admitted into the cylinder, and the operation was re- 
peated. The quantity of steam consumed and the weights 
it could raise were observed, and, excepting the non-appli- 
cation of the steam-case and external covering, the in- 
vention was complete in so far as regarded the savings 
of steam and fuel." 



COMPLETING THE INVENTION. 

But although the invention was complete in Watt's 
mind, it took him many long and laborious years to work 
out the details of the engine. His friend Robison, with 
whom his intimacy was maintained during these interesting 
experiments, has given a graphic account of the difficulties 
which he successively encountered and overcame. He 
relates that on his return from the country, after the col- 
lege vacation in 1765, he went to have a chat with Watt 
and communicate to him some observations he had made 
on Desaguliers' and Belidor's account of the steam-engine. 
He went straight into the parlor, without ceremony, and 
found Watt sitting before the fire looking at a little tin cis- 
tern which he had on his knee. Robison immediately 
started the conversation about steam ; his mind, like Watt's, 
being occupied with the means of avoiding the excessive 
waste of heat in the Newcomen engine. Watt all the 
while kept looking into the fire, and after a time laid down 
the cistern at the foot of his chair, saying nothing. It 
seems that Watt felt rather nettled that Robison had 
communicated to a mechanic of the town a contrivance 
which he had hit upon for turning the cocks of his engine. 
When Robison therefore pressed his inquiry, Watt at 
length looked at him and said briskly, " You need not fash 



ROB ISO N AND BLACK. 1 65 

yourself any more about that, man. I have now made an 
engine that shall not waste a particle of steam. It shall 
all be boiling hot, — ay, and hot water injected, if I 
please." He then pushed the little tin cistern with his 
foot under the table. 

Robison could learn no more of the new contrivance 
from Watt at that time ; but on the same evening he acci- 
dentally met a mutual acquaintance, who, supposing he 
knew as usual the progress of Watt's experiments, observed 
to him, "Well, have you seen Jamie Watt?" "Yes." 
" He '11 be in fine spirits now with his engine? " " Yes," 
said Robison, " very fine spirits." " Gad ! " said the 
other, " the separate condenser 's the thing ; keep it but 
cold enough, and you may have a perfect vacuum, what- 
ever be the heat of the cylinder." This was Watt's secret, 
and the nature of the contrivance was clear to Robison 
at once. 

It will be observed that Watt had not made a secret of 
it to his other friends. Indeed, Robison himself admitted 
that one of Watt's greatest delights was to communicate 
the results of his experiments to others, and set them upon 
the same road to knowledge with himself; and that no 
one could display less of the small jealousy of the trades- 
man than he did. To his intimate friend Dr. Black he 
communicated the progress made by him at every stage. 
The Doctor kindly encouraged him in his struggles, 
cheered him in his encounter with difficulty, and, what 
was of still more practical value at the time, helped him 
with money to enable him to prosecute his invention. 
Communicative though Watt was disposed to be, he learnt 
reticence when he found himself exposed to the depreda- 
tions of the smaller fry of inventors. Robison says that 
had he lived in Birmingham or London at the time, the 



1 66 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

probability is that some one or other of the numerous har- 
pies who live by sucking other people's brains would have 
secured patents for his more important inventions, and 
thereby deprived him of the benefits of his skill, science, 
and labor. As yet, however, there were but few mechan- 
ics in Glasgow capable of understanding or appreciating 
the steam-engine ; and the intimate friends to whom he 
freely spoke of his discovery were too honorable to take 
advantage of his confidence. Shortly after Watt com- 
municated to Robison the different stages of his invention, 
and the results at which he had arrived, much to the 
delight of his friend. 

It will be remembered that in the Newcomen engine 
the steam was only employed for the purpose of produc- 
ing a vacuum, and that its working power was in the 
down stroke, which was effected by the pressure of the 
air upon the piston ; hence it is now usual to call it the at- 
mospheric engine. Watt perceived that the air which fol- 
lowed the piston down the cylinder would cool the latter, 
and that steam would be wasted by reheating it. In or- 
der, therefore, to avoid this loss of heat, he resolved to 
put an air-tight cover upon the cylinder, with a hole and 
stuffing-box for the piston-rod to slide through, and to 
admit steam above the piston, to act upon it instead 
of the atmosphere. When the steam had done its duty 
in driving down the piston, a communication was opened 
between the upper and lower part of the cylinder ; and the 
same steam, distributing itself equally in both compart- 
ments, sufficed to restore equilibrium. The piston was 
now drawn up by the weight of the pump-gear ; the steam 
beneath it was then condensed in the separate vessel 
so as to produce a vacuum, and a fresh jet of steam 
from the boiler was let in above the piston, which forced 



WATTS MODEL. 1 67 

it again to the bottom of the cylinder. From an atmos- 
pheric engine it had thus become a true steam-engine, and 
with much greater economy of steam than when the air 
did half the duty. But it was not only important to keep 
the air from flowing down the inside of the cylinder ; the 
air which circulated within cooled the metal and con- 
densed a portion of the steam within ; and this Watt pro- 
posed to remedy by a second cylinder, surrounding the 
first, with an interval between the two which was to be 
kept full of steam. 

One by one these various contrivances were struck out, 
modified, settled, and reduced to definite plans, — the sep- 
arate condenser, the air and water pumps, the use of fat 
and oil (instead of water, as in the Newcomen engine) to 
keep the piston working in the cylinder air-tight, and the 
enclosing of the cylinder itself within another to prevent 
the loss of heat. These were all emanations from the first 
idea of inventing an engine working by a piston, in which 
the cylinder should be continually hot and perfectly 
dry. "When once," says Watt, "the idea of separate 
condensation was started, all these improvements followed 
as corollaries in quick succession, so that in the course 
of one or two days the invention was thus far complete in 
my mind." 



WATT MAKES HIS MODEL. 

The next step was to construct a model engine for the 
purpose of embodying the invention in a working form. 
With this object, Watt hired an old cellar, situated in the 
first wide entry to the north of the beef-market in King 
Street, and then proceeded with his model. He found it 



1 68 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

much easier, however, to prepare his plan than to execute 
it. Like most ingenious and inventive men, Watt was ex- 
tremely fastidious ; and this occasioned considerable delay 
in the execution of the work. His very inventiveness to 
some extent proved a hindrance ; for new expedients were 
perpetually occurring to him, which he thought would be 
improvements, and which he, by turns, endeavored to 
introduce. Some of these expedients he admits proved 
fruitless, and all of them occasioned delay. Another of 
his chief difficulties was in finding competent workmen to 
execute his plans. He himself had been accustomed only 
to small metal work, with comparatively delicate tools, 
and had very little experience " in the practice of me- 
chanics in great" as he termed it. He was therefore 
under the necessity of depending, in a great measure, 
upon the handiwork of others. But mechanics capable 
of working out Watt's designs in metal were then with 
difficulty to be found. The beautiful self-action and 
workmanship which have since been called into being, 
principally by his own invention, did not then exist. 
The only available hands in Glasgow were the black- 
smiths and tinners, little capable of constructing articles 
out of their ordinary walks ; and even in these they 
were often found clumsy, blundering, and incompetent. 
The result was, that in consequence of the malconstruc- 
tion of the larger parts, Watt's first model was only par- 
tially successful. The experiments made with it, however, 
served to verify the expectations he had formed, and to 
place the advantages of the invention beyond the reach of 
doubt. On the exhausting-cock being turned, the piston, 
when loaded with eighteen pounds, ascended as quickly 
as the blow of a hammer ; and the moment the steam- 
cock was opened, it descended with like rapidity, though 



DIFFICULTIES. 1 69 

the steam was weak, and the machine snifted at many 
openings. 

Satisfied that he had laid hold of the right principle of 
a working steam-engine, Watt felt impelled to follow it to 
an issue. He could give his mind to no other business 
in peace until this was done. He wrote to a friend that 
he was quite barren on every other subject. " My whole 
thoughts," said he, " are bent on this machine. I can 
think of nothing else." He proceeded to make another 
and bigger, and, he hoped, a more satisfactory engine in 
the following August ; and with that object he removed 
from the old cellar in King Street to a larger apartment in 
the then disused pottery, or delftwork, near the Broomielaw. 
There he shut himself up with his assistant, John Gardiner, 
for the purpose of erecting his engine. The cylinder was 
five or six inches in diameter, with a two-feet stroke. 
The inner cylinder was enclosed in a wooden steam-case, 
and placed inverted, the piston working through a hole 
in the bottom of the steam-case. After two months con- 
tinuous application and labor it was finished and set to 
work ; but it leaked in all directions, and the piston was 
far from air-tight. The condenser also was in a bad way, 
and needed many alterations. Nevertheless, the engine 
readily worked with ten and a half pounds pressure on 
the inch, and the piston lifted a weight of fourteen 
•pounds. The improvement of the cylinder and piston 
continued Watt's chief difficulty, and taxed his ingenuity 
to the utmost. At so low an ebb was the art of making 
cylinders that the one he used was not bored, but ham- 
mered, the collective mechanical skill of Glasgow being 
then unequal to the boring of a cylinder of the simplest 
kind ; nor, indeed, did the necessary appliances for the 
purpose then exist anywhere else. In the Newcomen 



170 STORIES of invention: 

engine a little water was found upon the uppei surface of 
the piston, and sufficiently filled up the interstices between 
the piston and the cylinder. But when Watt employed 
steam to drive down the piston, he was deprived of this 
resource, for the water and steam could not coexist. 
Even if he had retained the agency of the air above, the 
drip of water from the crevices into the lower part of the 
cylinder would have been incompatible with keeping 
the cylinder hot and dry, and, by turning into vapor as it 
fell upon the heated metal, it would have impaired the 
vacuum during the descent of the piston. 

While he was occupied with this difficulty, and striving 
to overcome it by the adoption of new expedients, such 
as leather collars and improved workmanship, he wrote to 
a friend, " My old white-iron man is dead ; " the old white- 
iron man, or tinner, being his leading mechanic. Unhap- 
pily, also, just as he seemed to have got the engine into 
working order, the beam broke, and, having great difficulty 
in replacing the damaged part, the accident threatened, 
together with the loss of his best workman, to bring the 
experiment to an end. Though discouraged by these mis- 
adventures, he was far from defeated. But he went on as 
before, battling down difficulty inch by inch, and holding 
good the ground he had won, becoming every day more 
strongly convinced that he was in the right track, and that 
the important uses of the invention, could he but find time 
and means to perfect it, were beyond the reach of doubt. 
But how to find the means ! Watt himself was a compar- 
atively poor man ; having no money but what he earned 
by his business of mechanical-instrument making, which 
he had for some time been neglecting through his devo- 
tion to the construction of his engine. What he wanted 
was capital, or the help of a capitalist willing to advance 



BOULTON AND WATT. I/I 

him the necessary funds to perfect his invention. To 
give a fair trial to the new apparatus would involve an 
expenditure of several thousand pounds ; and who on the 
spot could be expected to invest so large a sum in trying 
a machine so entirely new, depending for its success on 
physical principles very imperfectly understood ? 

There was no such help to be found in Glasgow. The 
tobacco lords, 1 though rich, took no interest in steam 
power ; and the manufacturing class, though growing in 
importance, had full employment for their little capital 
in their own concerns. 

" How Watt succeeded in interesting Dr. Roebuck in 
his project, and thus obtained funds to continue his experi- 
ments ; how he finally joined with Matthew Boulton in the 
great firm of Boulton and Watt, manufacturers of steam- 
engines ; how they pumped out all the water in the Cornish 
mines ; and how Watt finally attained prosperity as well 
as success, — is an interesting story, but rather too long 
for these winter afternoons ; and as the story of the in- 
vention of the steam-engine is substantially told in the 
foregoing pages, we must stop our reading here, more 
especially as it seems to be tea-time, and I hear Ellen 
ringing the bell for supper." 

1 The principal men of Glasgow were the importers of tobacco 
from Virginia. 



IX. 

ROBERT FULTON. 

n^HEY were to continue their talk and reading by 
following along the developments in the use of 
steam. 

" Uncle Fritz," said Fanchon, " these agnostics make 
so much fun of our dear Harry and Lucy, that they will 
not let me quote from 'The Botanic Garden.'" 

Emma promised that they would laugh as little as they 
could. 

" ' The Botanic Garden,' " said Fanchon, " was a 
stately, and I am afraid some of you would say very 
pompous, poem, written by Dr. Darwin." 

" Dr. Darwin write poetry ! " 

" It is not the Dr. Charles Darwin whom you have 
heard of; it was his grandfather," said Uncle Fritz. 

And Fanchon went on : " All I ever knew of ' The Bo- 
tanic Garden ' was in the quotations of our dear Harry 
and Lucy and Frank. But dear Uncle Fritz has taken 
down the book for me, and here it is, with its funny old 
pictures of Ladies' Slippers and such things." 

u I do not see what Ladies' Slippers have to do with 
steam-engines," said Bedford Long, scornfully. 

" No ! " said Fanchon, laughing ; " but I do, and that 
is the difference between you and me. Because, you see, 
I have read ' Harry and Lucy,' and you have not." And 



THE RAPID CAR. 1 73 

she opened "The Botanic Garden " at the place where 
she had put in a mark, and read : — 

" Pressed by the ponderous air, the piston falls 
Resistless, sliding through its iron walls ; 
Quick moves the balance beam of giant birth, 
Wields its large limbs, and nodding shakes the earth. 
The giant power, from earth's remotest caves 
Lifts, with strong arm, her dark reluctant waves, 
Each caverned rock and hidden depth explores, 
Drags her dark coals, and digs her shining ores." 

" That is rather stilted poetry," said Uncle Fritz, " but a 
hundred years ago people were used to stilted poetry. It 
describes sufficiently well the original pumping- engine of 
Watt, and the lifting of coal from the shafts of the deep 
English mines. Now ; it was not till Watt had made his 
improvements on the pumping-engine, — say in 1 788, — 
that it was possible to go any farther in the use of steam 
than its application to such absolutely stationary purposes. 
It is therefore, I think, a good deal to the credit of Dr. 
Darwin, that within three years after Watt's great improve- 
ment in the condensing-engine the Doctor should have 
written this : — 

' Soon shall thy arm, unconquered steam, afar 
Drag the slow barge or drive the rapid car.' 

It was twelve years after he wrote this, that Fulton had 
an experimental steamboat on the river Seine in France. 
It was sixteen years after, that, with one of Watt's own 
engines, Fulton drove the ' Clermont ' from New York to 
Albany in thirty- six hours, and revolutionized the world in 
doing it. 

" Poor James Mackintosh was in virtual exile in Calcutta 
at that time, and he wrote this in his journal : ' A boat 



174 STORIES OF INVENT! OX. 

propelled by steam has gone a hundred and fifty miles 
upon the Hudson in thirty-six hours. Four miles an hour 
would bring Calcutta within a hundred days of London. 
Oh that we had lived a hundred years later ! ' In less 
than fifty years after Mackintosh wrote those words, Cal- 
cutta was within thirty days of London. 

" When Harry and Lucy read these verses in 1825, the 
1 rapid car' was still in the future." 

"Yes," said Fanchon; "but Harry says, 'The rapid 
car is to come, and I dare say that will be accomplished 
soon, papa; do not you think it will?'" 

" I have sometimes wondered," said Uncle Fritz, 
" whether our American word ' car ' where the English say 
' wagon ' did not come from the ' rapid car ' of Dr. Darwin. 
Read on, Fanchon." And he put his finger on the lines 
which Fanchon read : — 

" Or on wide waving wings, expanded, bear 
The flying chariot through the fields of air." 

" Monsieur , the French gentleman, tried a light 

steam-engine for the propulsion of a balloon in 1872 ; but 
it does not seem to have had power enough. Messrs. 
Renard and Krebs, in their successful flight of August last, 
used an electric battery. 

" But we are getting away from Fulton, who is really the 
first who drove the ' slow barge,' and indeed made it a 
very fast one." 

" Did you know him? " asked Emma Fortinbras, whose 
ideas of chronology are very vague. 

" Oh, no ! " said Uncle Fritz j " he died young and be- 
fore my time. But I did know a personal companion and 
friend, nay, a bedfellow of his, Benjamin Church, who was 
with him in Paris at one of the crises of his life. Fulton had 



EARLY STEAMBOATS. 1 75 

a little steamboat on the river Seine, as I said just now ; 
and he had made interest with Napoleon to have it exam- 
ined by a scientific committee. Steam power was exactly 
what Napoleon wanted, to take his great army across from 
Boulogne to England. The day came for the great experi- 
ment. Church and Fulton slept, the night before, in the 
same bed in their humble lodgings in Paris. At daybreak 
a messenger waked them. He had come from the river 
to say that the weight of boiler and machinery had been 
too much for the little boat, that her timbers had given 
way, and that the whole had sunk to the bottom of the 
river. But for this misfortune, the successful steamboat 
would have sailed upon the Seine, and, for aught I know, 
Napoleon's grandchildren would now be emperors of 
England." 

Until Watt had completed the structure of the double- 
acting condensing-engine, the application of steam to any 
but the single object of pumping water had been almost 
impracticable. It was not enough, in order to render it 
applicable to general purposes, that the condensation of 
the water should take place in a separate vessel, and that 
steam itself should be used, instead of atmospheric pressure, 
as the moving power; but it was also necessary that the 
steam should act as well during the ascent as during the 
descent of the piston. Before steam could be used in 
moving paddle-wheels, it was in addition necessary that a 
ready and convenient mode of making the motion of 
the piston continuous and rotary, should be discovered. 
All these improvements upon the original form of the 
steam-engine are due to Watt, and he did not complete 
their perfect combination before the year 1786. 

Evans, who, in this country, saw the possibility of con- 
structing a double-acting engine, even before W T att, and 



I 76 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

had made a model of his machine, did not succeed in 
obtaining funds to make an experiment upon a large scale 
before 1801. We conceive, therefore, that all those who 
projected the application of steam to vessels before 1786, 
may be excluded, without ceremony, from the list of those 
entitled to compete with Fulton for the honors of inven- 
tion. No one, indeed, could have seen the powerful ac- 
tion of a pumping-engine without being convinced that 
the energy which was applied so successfully to that single 
purpose, might be made applicable to many others ; but 
those who entertained a belief that the original atmos- 
pheric engine, or even the single-acting engine of Watt, 
could be applied to propel boats by paddle-wheels, showed 
a total ignorance of mechanical principles. This is more 
particularly the case with all those whose projects bore the 
strongest resemblance to the plan which Fulton afterwards 
carried successfully into effect. Those who approached 
most nearly to the attainment of success, were they who 
were farthest removed from the plan of Fulton. His ap- 
plication was founded on the properties of Watt's double- 
acting engine, and could not have been used at all, until 
that instrument of universal application had received the 
last finish of its inventor. 

In this list of failures, from proposing to do what the 
instrument they employed was incapable of performing, we 
do not hesitate to include Savery, Papin, Jonathan Hulls, 
P£rier, the Marquis de Jouffroy, and all the other names of 
earlier date than 1 786, whom the jealousy of the French 
and English nations have drawn from oblivion for the 
purpose of contesting the priority of Fulton's claims. The 
only competitor, whom they might have brought forward 
with some shadow of plausibility, is Watt himself. No 
sooner had that illustrious inventor completed his double- 



FITCH AND RUMSEY. 1 77 

acting engine, than he saw at a glance the vast field of its 
application. Navigation and locomotion were not omitted ; 
but living in an inland town, and in a country possessing 
no rivers of importance, his views were limited to canals 
alone. In this direction he saw an immediate objection 
to the use of any apparatus, of which so powerful an agent 
as his engine should be the mover ; for it was clear, that 
the injury which would be done to the banks of the canal, 
would prevent the possibility of its introduction. Watt, 
therefore, after having conceived the idea of a steamboat, 
laid it aside, as unlikely to be of any practical value. 

The idea of applying steam to navigation was not con- 
fined to Europe. Numerous Americans entertained hopes 
of attaining the same object, but, before 1786, with the 
same want of any reasonable hopes of success. Their 
fruitless projects were, however, rebuked by Franklin, 
who, reasoning upon the capabilities of the engine in its 
original form, did not hesitate to declare all their schemes 
impracticable ; and the correctness of his judgment is at 
present unquestionable. 

Among those who, before the completion of Watt's in- 
vention, attempted the structure of steamboats, must be 
named with praise Fitch and Rumsey. They, unlike 
those whose names have been cited, were well aware of the 
real difficulties which they were to overcome ; and both 
were the authors of plans which, if the engine had been 
incapable of further improvement, might have had a par- 
tial and limited success. Fitch's trial was made in 1783, 
and Rumsey's in 1787. The latter date is subsequent to 
Watt's double-acting engine ; but as the project consisted 
merely in pumping in water, to be afterwards forced out at 
the stern, the single-acting engine was probably employed. 
Evans, whose engine might have answered the purpose, 



178 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

was employed in the daily business of millwright j and 
although he might, at any time, have driven these com- 
petitors from the field, he took no steps to apply his 
dormant invention. 

Fitch, who had watched the graceful and rapid way of 
the Indian canoe, saw in the oscillating motion of the old 
pumping-engine the means of impelling paddles in a man^ 
ner similar to that given them by the human arm. This 
idea is extremely ingenious, and was applied in a simple 
and beautiful manner. But the engine was yet too feeble 
and cumbrous to yield an adequate force ; and when it 
received its great improvement from Watt, a more efficient 
mode of propulsion had become practicable, and must 
have superseded Fitch's paddles had they even come into 
general use. 

The experiments of Fitch and Rumsey in the United 
States, although generally considered unsuccessful, did not 
deter others from similar attempts. The great rivers and 
arms of the sea which intersect the Atlantic coast, and, 
still more, the innumerable navigable arms of the Father 
of Waters, appeared to call upon the ingenious machinist 
to contrive means for their more convenient navigation. 

The improvement of the engine by Watt was now famil- 
iarly known ; and it was evident that it possessed sufficient 
powers for the purpose. The only difficulty which existed, 
was in the mode of applying it. The first person who 
entered into the inquiry was John Stevens, of Hokoken, 
who commenced his researches in 1791. In these he was 
steadily engaged for nine years, when he became the asso- 
ciate of Chancellor Livingston and Nicholas Roosevelt. 
Among the persons employed by this association was 
Brunei, who has since become distinguished in Europe as 
the inventor of the block machinery used in the British 



FULTON AND LIVINGSTON 1 79 

navy-yards, and as the engineer of the tunnel beneath the 
Thames. 

Even with the aid of such talent, the efforts of this as- 
sociation were unsuccessful, — as we now know, from no 
error in principle, but from defects in the boat to which it 
was applied. The appointment of Livingston as ambas- 
sador to France broke up this joint effort ; and, like all 
previous schemes, it was considered abortive, and con- 
tributed to throw discredit upon all undertakings of the 
kind. A grant of exclusive privileges on the waters of the 
State of New York was made to this association without 
any difficulty, it being believed that the scheme was little 
short of madness. 

Livingston, on his arrival in France, found Fulton dom- 
iciliated with Joel Barlow. The conformity in their pur- 
suits led to intimacy, and Fulton speedily communicated 
to Livingston the scheme 1 which he had laid before Earl 
Stanhope in 1793. Livingston was so well pleased with it 
that he at once offered to provide the funds necessary for 
an experiment, and to enter into a contract for Fulton's 
aid in introducing the method into' the United States, pro- 
vided the experiment were successful. 

Fulton had, in his early discussion with Lord Stanhope, 
repudiated the idea of an apparatus acting on the prin- 
ciple of the foot of an aquatic bird, and had proposed 
paddle-wheels in its stead. On resuming his inquiries after 
his arrangements with Livingston, it occurred to him to 
compose wheels with a set of paddles revolving upon an 

. l Earl Stanhope, among other projects, had conceived " the hope of be- 
ing able to apply the steam-engine to navigation by the aid of a peculiar 
apparatus modelled after the foot of an aquatic fowl." Fulton, on being 
consulted by the Earl, doubted the feasibility, and suggested the very 
means which he afterward made successful upon the Hudson. 



I SO STOKIES OF INVENTION. 

endless chain extending from the stem to the stern of the 
boat. It is probable that the apparent want of success 
which had attended the experiments of Symington x led 
him to doubt the correctness of his original views. 

That such doubt should be entirely removed, he had 
recourse to a series of experiments upon a small scale. 
These were performed at Plombieres, a French watering- 
place, where he spent the summer of 1802. In these ex- 
periments the superiority of the paddle-wheel over every 
other method of propulsion that had yet been proposed, 
was fully established. His original impressions being thus 
confirmed, he proceeded, late in the year 1803, to con- 
struct a working model of his intended boat, which model 
was deposited with a commission of French savans. He 
at the same time began building a vessel sixty-six feet 
in length and eight feet in width. To this an engine 
was adapted ; and the experiment made with it was so 
satisfactory, as to leave little doubt of final success. 

Measures were therefore immediately taken, prepara- 
tory to constructing a steamboat on a larger scale in the 
United States. For this purpose, as the workshops of 
neither France nor America could at that time furnish an 
engine of good quality, it became necessary to resort to 
England for that purpose. Fulton had already experi- 
enced the difficulty of being compelled to employ artists 
unacquainted with the subject. It is, indeed, more than 
probable, that, had he not, during his residence in Bir- 
mingham, made himself familiar, not only with the general 
features, but with the most minute details of the engine of 
Watt, the experiment on the Seine could not have been 

1 Symington was an engineer who had been carrying out some experi- 
ments of Miller of Dalswinton in regard to the practicability of steam 
navigation. 



CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTON. l8l 

made. In this experiment, and in the previous investiga- 
tions, it became obvious that the engine of Watt required 
important modifications in order to adapt it to navigation. 
These modifications had been planned by Fulton ; but it 
now became important, that they should be more fully 
tested. An engine was therefore ordered from Watt and 
Boulton, without any specification of the object to which it 
was to be applied ; and its form was directed to be varied 
from their usual models, in conformity to sketches furnished 
by Fulton. 

The order for an engine intended to propel a vessel of 
large size, was transmitted to Watt and Boulton in 1803. 
At about the same time, Chancellor Livingston, having 
full confidence in the success of the enterprise, caused an 
application to be made to the legislature of New York for 
an exclusive privilege of navigating the waters of that 
State by steam, that which was granted on a former occa- 
sion having expired. 

This privilege was granted with little opposition. In- 
deed, those who might have been inclined to object, saw 
so much of the impracticable and even of the ridiculous in 
the project, that they conceived the application unworthy 
of serious debate. The condition attached to the grant 
was, that a vessel should be propelled by steam at the rate 
of four miles an hour, within a prescribed space of time. 
This reliance upon the reserved rights of the States proved 
a fruitful source of vexation to Livingston and Fulton, and 
imbittered the close of the life of the latter, and reduced 
his family to penury. It can hardly be doubted that, had 
an expectation been entertained, that the grant of a State 
was ineffectual, and that the jurisdiction was vested in the 
general government, a similar grant might have been ob- 
tained from Congress. The influence of Livingston with 



1 82 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

the administration was deservedly high, and that adminis- 
tration was supported by a powerful majority ; nor would it 
have been consistent with the principles of the opposition 
to vote against any act of liberality to the introducer of 
a valuable application of science. Livingston, however, 
confiding in his skill as a lawyer, preferred the application 
to the State, and was thus, by his own act, restricted to a 
limited field. 

Before the engine ordered from Watt and Boulton was 
completed, Fulton visited England, and thus had an 
opportunity of visiting Birmingham, and directing, in 
person, its construction. It could only have been at 
this time, if ever, that he saw the boat of Symington ; 1 
but a view of it could have produced no effect upon his 
own plans, which had been matured in France, and car- 
ried, so far as the engine was concerned, to such an 
extent as to admit of no alteration. 

The engine was at last completed, and reached New 
York in 1806. Fulton, who returned to his native coun- 
try about the same period, immediately undertook the 
construction of a boat in which to place it. In ordering 
his engine and in planning the boat, Fulton exhibited 
plainly how far his scientific researches and practical 
experiments had placed him before all his competitors. 
He had evidently ascertained, what each successive year's 
experience proves more fully, the great advantages pos- 
sessed by large steamboats over those of smaller size ; 
and thus, while all previous attempts had been made in 
smaller vessels, he alone resolved to make his final ex- 
periment in one of great dimensions. That a vessel, 

1 Who subsequently made charge that Fulton, having seen lus steam- 
boat and made copious notes thereon, had thus been able to make his boat 
upon the Hudson. 



THE FIRST VOYAGE. 1 83 

intended to be propelled by steam, ought to have very 
different proportions, and lines of a character wholly 
distinct from those of vessels intended to be navigated 
by sails, was evident to him. No other theory, how- 
ever, of the resistance of fluids was admitted at the 
time than that of Bossut, and there were no published 
experiments except those of the British Society of Arts. 
Judged in reference to these, the model chosen by Ful- 
ton was faultless, although it will not stand the test of 
an examination founded upon a better theory and more 
accurate experiments. 

The vessel was finished and fitted with her machinery 
in August, 1807. An experimental excursion was forth- 
with made, at which a number of gentlemen of science 
and intelligence were present. Many of these were either 
sceptical or absolute unbelievers. But a few minutes 
served to convert the whole party, and satisfy the most 
obstinate doubters, that the long- desired object was at 
last accomplished. Only a few weeks before, the cost 
of constructing and finishing the vessel threatening to 
exceed the funds with which he had been provided by 
Livingston, Fulton had attempted to obtain a supply 
by the sale of one third of the exclusive right granted 
by the State of New York. No person was found pos- 
sessed of the faith requisite to induce him to embark in 
the project. Those who had rejected this opportunity 
of investment, were now the witnesses of the comple- 
tion of the scheme, which they had considered as an 
inadequate security for the desired funds. 

Within a few days from the time of the first experiment 
with the steamboat, a voyage was undertaken in it to 
Albany. This city, situated at the natural head of the 
navigation of the Hudson, is distant, by the line of the 



1 84 STORIES OF INVENTION 

channel of the river, rather less than one hundred and 
fifty miles from New York. By the old post-road, the 
distance is one hundred and sixty miles, at which that by 
water is usually estimated. Although the greater part of 
the channel of the Hudson is both deep and wide, yet 
for about fourteen miles below Albany this character is 
not preserved, and the stream, confined within compar- 
atively small limits, is obstructed by bars of sand or 
spreads itself over shallows. In a few remarkable in- 
stances, the sloops, which then exclusively navigated the 
Hudson, had effected a passage in about sixteen hours ; 
but a whole week was not unfrequently employed in the 
voyage, and the average time of passage was not less than 
four entire days. In Fulton's first attempt to navigate this 
stream, the passage to Albany was performed in thirty-two 
hours, and the return in thirty. 

Up to this time, although the exclusive grant had been 
sought and obtained from the State of New York, it does 
not appear that either he or his associate had been fully 
aware of the vast opening which the navigation of the 
Hudson presented for the use of steam. They looked to 
the rapid Mississippi and its branches, as the place where 
their triumph was to be achieved ; and the original boat, 
modelled for shallow waters, was announced as intended 
for the navigation of that river. But even in the very 
first attempt, numbers, called by business or pleasure to 
the northern or western parts of the State of New York, 
crowded into the yet untried vessel ; and when the success 
of the attempt was beyond question, no little anxiety was 
manifested, that the steamboat should be established as a 
regular packet between New York and Albany. 

With these indications of public feeling Fulton imme- 
diately complied, and regular voyages were made at stated 



THE "CLERMONT." 1 85 

times until the end of the season. These voyages were 
not, however, unattended with inconvenience. The boat, 
designed for a mere experiment, was incommodious ; and 
many of the minor arrangements by which facility of 
working and safety from accident to the machinery were 
to be insured, were yet wanting. Fulton continued a 
close and attentive observer of the performance of the 
vessel ; every difficulty, as it manifested itself, was met and 
removed by the most masterly as well as simple contriv- 
ances. Some of these were at once adopted, while others 
remained to be applied while the boat should be laid up 
for the winter. He thus gradually formed in his mind the 
idea of a complete and perfect vessel ; and in his plan, 
no one part which has since been found to be essential 
to the ease of manoeuvre or security, was omitted. But 
the eyes of the whole community were now fixed upon 
the steamboat ; and as all those of competent mechanical 
knowledge were, like Fulton himself, alive to the defects 
of the original vessel, his right to priority of invention of 
various important accessories has been disputed. 

The winter of 1807-8 was occupied in remodelling 
and rebuilding the vessel, to which the name "Clermont" 
was now given. The guards and housings for the wheels, 
which had been but temporary structures, applied as their 
value was pointed out by experience, became solid and 
essential parts of the boat. For a rudder of the ordinary 
form, one of surface much more extended in its horizontal 
dimensions was substituted. This, instead of being moved 
by a tiller, was acted upon by ropes applied to its extrem- 
ity; and these ropes were adapted to a steering-wheel, 
which was raised aloft towards the bow of the vessel. 

It had been shown by the numbers who were trans- 
ported during the first summer, that at the same price for 



1 86 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

passage, many were willing to undergo all the inconven- 
iences of the original rude accommodations, in preference 
to encountering the delays and uncertainty to which the 
passage in sloops was exposed. Fulton did not, however, 
take advantage of his monopoly, but with the most liberal 
spirit, provided such accommodations for passengers, as 
in convenience and even splendor, had not before been 
approached in vessels intended for the transportation of 
travellers. This was, on his part, an exercise of almost 
improvident liberality. By his contract with Chancellor 
Livingston, the latter undertook to defray the whole cost 
of the engine and vessel, until the experiment should 
result in success ; but from that hour each was to furnish 
an equal share of all investments. Fulton had no pat- 
rimonial fortune, and what little he had saved from the 
product of his ingenuity was now exhausted. But the 
success of the experiment had inspired the banks and 
capitalists with confidence, and he now found no diffi- 
culty in obtaining, in the way of loan, all that was needed. 
Still, however, a debt was thus contracted which the con- 
tinued demands made upon him for new investments 
never permitted him to discharge. The " Clermont," 
thus converted into a floating palace, gay with orna- 
mental painting, gilding, and polished woods, began her 
course of passages for the second year in the month of 
April. 

The first voyage of this year was of the most discour- 
aging character. Chancellor Livingston, who had, by his 
own experiments, approached as near to success as any 
other person who, before Fulton, had endeavored to 
navigate by steam, and who had furnished all the capital 
necessary for the experiment, had plans and projects of 
his own. These he urged into execution in spite of the 



PUNCTUALITY. 1 87 

opposition of Fulton. The boiler furnished by Watt and 
Boulton was not adapted to the object. Copied from 
those used on the land, it required that its fireplace and 
flues should be constructed of masonry. These added so 
much weight to the apparatus, that the rebuilt boat would 
hardly have floated had they been retained. In order to 
replace this boiler, Livingston had planned a compound 
structure of wood and copper, which he insisted should 
be tried. 

It is only necessary for us to say, that this boiler proved 
a complete failure. Steam began to issue from its joints a 
few hours after the " Clermont " left New York. It then 
became impossible to keep up a proper degree of tension, 
and the passage was thus prolonged to forty-eight hours. 
These defects increased after leaving Albany on the return, 
and the boiler finally gave way altogether within a few 
miles of New York. The time of the downward passage 
was thus extended to fifty-six hours. Fulton was, how- 
ever, thus relieved from all further interference ; this fruit- 
less experiment was decisive as to his superiority over his 
colleague in mechanical skill. He therefore immediately 
planned and directed the execution of a new boiler, which 
answered the purpose perfectly ; and although there are 
many reasons why boilers of a totally different form and 
of subsequent invention should be preferred, it is, for its 
many good properties, extensively used, with little alter- 
ation, up to the present day. But a few weeks sufficed 
to build and set this boiler, and in the month of June 
the regular passages of the " Clermont " were renewed. 

In observing the hour appointed for departure, both 
from New York and Albany, Fulton determined to insist 
upon the utmost regularity. It required no little perse- 
verance and resolution to carry this system of punctuality 



1 88 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

into effect. Persons accustomed to be waited for by 
packet-boats and stages, assented with great reluctance to 
what they conceived to be a useless adherence to precision 
of time. The benefits of this punctuality were speedily 
perceptible ; the whole system of internal communication 
of the State of New York was soon regulated by the hours 
of arrival and departure of Fulton's steamboats ; and the 
same system of precision was copied in all other steam- 
boat lines. The certainty of conveyance at stated times 
being thus secured, the number of travellers was instantly 
augmented ; and before the end of the second summer, 
the boat became far too small for the passengers, who 
crowded to avail themselves of this novel, punctual, and 
unprecedentedly rapid method of transport. 

Such success, however, was not without its alloy. The 
citizens of Albany and the river towns saw, as they thought, 
in the steamboat, the means of enticing their customers 
from their ancient marts to the more extensive market 
of the chief city ; the skippers of the river mourned the 
inevitable loss of a valuable part of their business ; and 
innumerable projectors beheld with envy the successful 
enterprise of Fulton. 

Among the latter class was one who, misled by false 
notions of mechanical principles, fancied that in the mere 
, oscillations of a pendulum lay a power sufficient for any 
purpose whatever. Availing himself of a well-constructed 
model, he exhibited to the inhabitants of Albany a pendu- 
lum which continued its motions for a considerable time, 
without requiring any new impulse, and at the same time 
propelled a pair of wheels. These wheels, however, did 
not work in water. Those persons who felt themselves 
aggrieved by the introduction of steamboats, quickly em- 
braced this project, prompted by an enmity to Fulton, 



LEGAL CONTESTS. 1 89 

and determined, if they could not defeat his object, at 
least to share in the profits of its success. 

It soon appeared, from preliminary experiments, made 
in a sloop purchased for the purpose, that a steam-engine 
would be required to give motion to the pendulum ; and 
it was observed that the water-wheels, when in connection 
with the pendulum, had a very irregular motion. A fly- 
wheel was therefore added, and the pendulum was now 
found to be a useless incumbrance. Enlightened by 
these experiments, the association proceeded to build two 
boats ; and these were exact copies, not only of the hull 
and all the accessories of the " Clermont," but the engine 
turned out to be identical in form and structure with 
one which Fulton was at the very time engaged in fitting 
to his second boat, " The Car of Neptune." 

The pretence of bringing into use a new description 
of prime mover was of course necessarily abandoned, and 
the owners of the new steamboats determined boldly to 
test the constitutionality of the exclusive grant to Fulton. 
Fulton and Livingston, in consequence, applied to the 
Court of Chancery of the State of New York for an in- 
junction, which was refused. On an appeal to the Court 
of Errors this decision of the Chancellor was reversed ; but 
the whole of the profits which might have been derived 
from the business of the year were prevented from accru- 
ing to Livingston and Fulton, who, compelled to contend 
in price with an opposition supported by popular feeling 
in Albany, were losers rather than gainers by the operations 
of the season. 

As no appeal was taken from this last decision, the 
waters of the State of New York remained in the exclusive 
possession of Fulton and his partner, until the death of 
the former. This exclusive possession was not, however, 



1 90 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

attended with all the advantages that might have been 
anticipated. The immense increase of travel which the 
facilities of communication created, rendered it imperative 
upon the holders of the monopoly to provide new facilities 
by the construction of new vessels. The cost of these 
could not be defrayed out of the profits. Hence new 
and heavy debts were necessarily contracted by Fulton, 
while Livingston, possessed of an ample fortune, required 
no pecuniary aid beyond what he was able to meet from 
his own resources. 

The most formidable opposition which was made to the 
privileges of Fulton, was founded upon the discoveries of 
Fitch. We have seen, that he constructed a boat which 
made some passages between Trenton and Philadelphia ; 
but the method which he used, was that of paddles, 
which are far inferior to the paddle-wheel. Of the infe- 
riority of the method of paddles, had any doubt remained, 
positive evidence was afforded in the progress of this dis- 
pute ; for in order to bring the question to the test of a 
legal decision, a boat propelled by them was brought into 
the waters of the State of New York. The result of the 
experiment was so decisive, that when the parties engaged 
in the enterprise had succeeded in their designs, they 
made no attempt to propel their boats by any other 
method than that of wheels. 

Fulton, assailed in his exclusive privileges derived from 
State grants, took, for his further protection, a patent from 
the general government. This is dated in 1809, and was 
followed by another, for improvements upon it, in 181 1. 
It now appeared, that the very circumstance in which the 
greatest merit of his method consists, was to be the obsta- 
cle to his maintaining an exclusive privilege. Discarding 
all complexity, he had limited himself to the simple means 



IMPROVEMENTS. 191 

of adapting paddle-wheels to the crank of Watt's engine ; 
and, under the patent laws, it seems hardly possible that 
such a simple yet effectual method could be guarded by 
a specification. As has been the case with many other 
important discoveries, the most ignorant conceived that 
they might themselves have discovered it ; and those un- 
acquainted with the history of the attempts at navigation 
by steam, were compelled to wonder that it had been left 
for Fulton to bring it into successful operation. 

Before the death of Fulton, the steamboats on the 
Hudson River were increased in number to five. A sixth 
was built under his direction for the navigation of the 
Sound ; and, this water being rendered unsafe by the 
presence of an enemy's l squadron, the boat plied for a 
time upon the Hudson. In the construction of this boat 
he had, in his own opinion, exhausted the power of steam 
in navigation, having given it a speed of nine miles an 
hour; and it is a remarkable fact, which manifests his 
acquaintance with theory and skill in calculation, that he 
in all cases predicted with almost absolute accuracy, the 
velocity of the vessels he caused to be constructed. The 
engineers of Great Britain came, long after, to a similar 
conclusion in respect to the maximum of speed. 

It is now, however, well known, that, with a proper con- 
struction of prows, the resistance to vessels moving at 
higher velocities than nine miles an hour, increases in 
a much less ratio than had been inferred from experi- 
ments made upon wedge-shaped bodies ; and that the 
velocity of the pistons of steam-engines may be conve- 
niently increased beyond the limit fixed by the practice 
of Watt. 

For these important discoveries the world is indebted 

1 This was in the course of the War of 1S12. 



I Q2 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

principally to Robert L. Stevens. That Fulton must have 
reached them in the course of his own practice can hardly 
be doubted, had his valuable life been spared to watch 
the performance of the vessels he was engaged in build- 
ing at the time of his premature death. 1 These were, a 
large boat intended for the navigation of the Hudson, 
to which the name of his partner, Chancellor Livingston, 
was given, and one planned for the navigation of the 
ocean. The latter was constructed with the intention of 
making a passage to St. Petersburg ; but this scheme was 
interrupted by his death, which took place at the moment 
he was about to add to his glory, as the first constructor 
of a successful steamboat, that of being the first navigator 
of the ocean by this new and mighty agent. 

1 Fulton died Feb. 24, 1815 ; he was born in 1765. 



X. 

GEORGE STEPHENSON AND THE LOCO- 
MOTIVE. 

"\X7HAT I say is this," said Nahum, "that all your 
^ * Vesuvius dividends, and all your pickers and 
slobbers, and shirtings at four cents, and all the rest of 
your great cotton victory, depend on railroads. If your 
father could not go to Lewiston and see his foreman and 
people, and come back before you can say Jack Robin- 
son, there would be no mills at Lewiston such as there 
are. There might be a poor little sawmill making shingles, 
as you free-traders want." This with scorn at Fergus, 
perhaps, or some one else suspected of views unfavorable 
to protection. 

Then Nahum shook hands with Uncle Fritz, and apol- 
ogized for his zeal, adding : " I am telling the boys why 
I want to go to Altoona, and to become a railroad man. I 
say that the new plant in India might knock cotton higher 
than a kite, and that people might learn to live without 
novels or magazines, but that they must have transpor- 
tation all the same. And I am going into the railroad 
business. I am going to hew down the mountains and 
fill up the valleys." The boy was fairly eloquent in his 
enthusiasm. 

" It is in your blood, my brave fellow," said Uncle 
Fritz. " People thought your grandfather was crazy when 
13 



194 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

he said it, sixty years ago. But it proved he was the see* 
and the prophet, and they were the fools." 

" And who invented railroads ? " asked Blanche. 

" As to that, the man invented a railroad who first put 
two boards down over two ruts to make a cart run easier. 
Almost as soon as there were mines, there must have been 
some sort of rail for the use of the wagons which brought 
out the ore. These rails became so useful that they >vere 
continued from the mine to the high-road, whatever it 
was. But it was not till the first quarter of this century, 
that rails were laid for general use. The earliest railroad 
in the United States was laid at the quarries in Quincy, 
in Massachusetts, in 1825." 

Uncle Fritz was so well pleased at their eagerness that 
he brought out for them some of the old books, and some 
of the new. In especial he bade them all read Smiles 's 
"Life of Stephenson" before they came to him again. 
For to George Stephenson, as they soon learned, more 
than to any one man, the world owes the step forward 
which it made when locomotives were generally used on 
railroads. Since that time the improvements in both have 
gone on together. 

Before they met again, at Uncle Fritz's suggestion, 
Fergus and Hester prepared this sketch of the details 
of Stephenson's earlier invention, purposely that Uncle 
Fritz might use it when these papers should be printed 
together. 

GEORGE STEPHENSON. 

An efficient and economical working locomotive engine 
still remained to be invented, and to accomplish this ob- 
ject Stephenson now applied himself. Profiting by what 
his predecessors had done, — warned by their failures and 



LORD RAVENS WORTH. 



195 



encouraged by their partial successes, — he began his 
labors. There was still wanting the man who should ac- 
complish for the locomotive what James Watt had done 
for the steam-engine, and combine in a complete form the 
best points in the separate plans of others, embodying 
with them such original inventions and adaptations of his 
own, as to entitle him to the merit of inventing the work- 
ing locomotive, as James Watt is to be regarded as the 
inventor of the working condensing-engine. This was the 
great work upon which George Stephenson now entered, 
though probably without any adequate idea of the ulti- 
mate importance of his work to society and civilization. 

He proceeded to bring the subject of constructing a 
"Travelling Engine," as he denominated the locomotive, 
under the notice of the lessees of the Killingworth Col- 
liery, 1 in the year 18 13. Lord Ravens worth, the principal 
partner, had already formed a very favorable opinion of the 
new colliery engine-wright from the improvements which 
he had effected in the colliery engines, both above and 
below ground; and after considering the matter, and 
hearing Stephenson's explanations, he authorized him to 
proceed with the construction of a locomotive, though 
his lordship was by some called a fool for advancing money 
for such a purpose. " The first locomotive that I made," 
said Stephenson, many years after, when speaking of his 
early career at a public meeting in Newcastle, " was at Kil- 

1 Killingworth is a town some seven or eight miles north of Newcastle, 
in Northumberland. George Stephenson was at this time the engine-wright 
of the colliery. It may be said here that the principal use for which the 
early locomotive engines and railroads were designed was to convey coal 
from the pit to a market. It was not till the success of the mining and 
quarrying railways led to the building of the Liverpool and Manchester 
Road, between two great cities, that the value of the railroad for the transfer 
of passengers was recognized. 



196 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

lingworth Colliery, and with Lord Ravensworth's money. 
Yes, Lord Ravensvvorth and partners were the first to in- 
trust me, thirty-two years since, with money to make a 
locomotive engine. I said to my friends, there was no 
limit to the speed of such an engine, if the works could 
be made to stand." 

Our engine-wright had, however, many obstacles to 
encounter before he could get fairly to work upon the 
erection of his locomotive. His chief difficulty was in 
finding workmen sufficiently skilled in mechanics and in 
the use of tools to follow his instructions, and embody his 
designs in a practical shape. The tools then in use about 
the colliery were rude and clumsy, and there were no such 
facilities, as now exist, for turning out machinery of any 
entirely new character. Stephenson was under the neces- 
sity of working with such men and tools as were at his 
command, and he had in a great measure to train and 
instruct the workmen himself. The new engine was built 
in the workshops at the West Morr, the leading mechanic 
being John Thirlwall, the colliery blacksmith, — an excel- 
lent mechanic in his way, though quite new to the work 
now intrusted to him. 

In this first locomotive, constructed at Killingworth, 
Stephenson to some extent followed the plan of Blenkin- 
sop's engine. The wrought- iron boiler was cylindrical, 
eight feet in length and thirty-four inches in diameter, 
with an internal flue-tube twenty inches wide passing 
through it. The engine had two vertical cylinders, of 
eight inches diameter and two feet stroke, let into the 
boiler, which worked the propelling gear with cross-heads 
and connecting-rods. The power of the two cylinders 
was combined by means of spur-wheels, which commu- 
nicated the motive power to the wheels supporting the 



THE FIRST TRIAL. 1 97 

engine on the rail. The engine thus worked upon what is 
termed the second motion. The chimney was of wrought- 
iron, round which was a chamber extending back to the 
feed-pumps, for the purpose of heating the water previous 
to its injection into the boiler. The engine had no springs, 
and was mounted on a wooden frame supported on four 
wheels. In order to neutralize as much as possible the 
jolts and shocks which such an engine would necessa- 
rily encounter, from the obstacles and inequalities of the 
then very imperfect plate-way, the water-barrel, which 
served for a tender, was fixed to the end of a lever and 
weighted; the other end of the lever being connected 
with the frame of the locomotive carriage. By this means 
the weight of the two was more equally distributed, though 
the contrivance did not by any means compensate for the 
total absence of springs. 

The wheels of the locomotive were all smooth, Ste- 
phenson having satisfied himself by experiment that the 
adhesion between the wheels of a loaded engine and the 
rail would be sufficient for the purposes of traction. 1 

The engine was, after much labor and anxiety, and fre- 
quent alterations of parts, at length brought to completion, 
having been about ten months in hand. It was placed 
upon the Killingworth Railway on the 25 th of July, 1814, 
and its powers were tried on the same day. On an as- 
cending gradient of 1 in 450, the engine succeeded in 
drawing after it eight loaded carriages, of thirty tons weight, 
at about four miles an hour ; and for some time after it 
continued regularly at work. 

Although a considerable advance upon previous loco- 

1 It had been generally the opinion that cog-wheels must be used which 
should fit into cogs in the rail. Otherwise it was imagined the wheels 
would revolve without proceeding. 



198 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

motives, " Blucher " (as the engine was popularly called) 
was nevertheless a somewhat cumbrous and clumsy ma- 
chine. The parts were huddled together. The boiler 
constituted the principal feature ; and, being the founda- 
tion of the other parts, it was made to do duty not only as 
a generator of steam, but also as a basis for the fixings ui 
the machinery and for the bearings of the wheels and 
axles. The want of springs was seriously felt ; and the 
progress of the engine was a succession of jolts, causing 
considerable derangement to the working. The mode of 
communicating the motive power to the wheels by means 
of the spur-gear also caused frequent jerks, each cylinder 
alternately propelling or becoming propelled by the other, 
as the pressure of the one upon the wheels became greater 
or less than the pressure of the other; and when the 
teeth of the cog-wheels became at all worn, a rattling 
noise was produced during the travelling of the engine. 

As the principal test of the success of the locomotive 
was its economy as compared with horse-power, careful 
calculations were made with the view of ascertaining this 
important point. The result was, that it was found the 
working of the engine was at first barely economical ; and 
at the end of the year the steam-power and the horse- 
power were ascertained to be as nearly as possible upon a 
par in point of cost. 

We give the remainder of the history of George Ste- 
phenson's efforts to produce an economical working loco- 
motive in the words of his son Robert, as communicated 
to Mr. Smiles in 1856, for the purposes of his father's 
" Life." 

" A few months of experience and careful observation 
upon the operation of this (his first) engine convinced 
my father that the complication arising out of the action 



THE SECOND ENGINE. 199 

of the two cylinders being combined by spur-wheels would 
prevent their coming into practical application. He then 
directed his attention to an entire change in the con- 
struction and mechanical arrangements, and in the fol- 
lowing year took out a patent, dated Feb. 28, 18 15, for an 
engine which combined in a remarkable degree the essen- 
tial requisites of an economical locomotive, — that is to 
say, few parts, simplicity in their action, and great simpli- 
city in the mode by which power was communicated to 
the wheels supporting the engine. 

" This second engine consisted, as before, of two vertical 
cylinders, which communicated directly with each pair of 
the four wheels that supported the engine by a cross-head 
and a pair of connecting-rods. But in attempting to 
establish a direct communication between the cylinders 
and the wheels that rolled upon the rails, considerable 
difficulties presented themselves. The ordinary joints 
could not be employed to unite the engine, which was a 
rigid mass, with the wheels rolling upon the irregular sur- 
face of the rails ; for it was evident that the two rails of 
the line of railway could not always be maintained at the 
same level with respect to each other, — that one wheel at 
the end of the axle might be depressed into a part of the 
line which had subsided, while the other would be elevated. 
In such a position of the axle and wheels it was clear that 
a rigid communication between the cross-head and the 
wheels was impracticable. Hence it became necessary 
to form a joint at the top of the piston-rod where it united 
with the cross-head, so as to permit the cross-head always 
to preserve complete parallelism with the axle of the 
wheels with which it was in communication. 

" In order to obtain the flexibility combined with di- 
rect action, which was essential for insuring power and 



200 STORIES OF INVENTION: 

avoiding needless friction and jars from irregularities in 
the rail, my father employed the ' ball and socket joint ' 
for effecting a union between the ends of the cross-heads, 
where they were united with the crank-pins attached to 
each driving-wheel. By this arrangement the parallelism 
between the cross-head and the axle was at all times main- 
tained, it being permitted to take place without producing 
jar or friction upon any part of the machine. 

" The next important point was to combine each pair 
of wheels by some simple mechanism, instead of the cog- 
wheels which had formerly been used. My father began 
by inserting each axle into two cranks, at right angles to 
each other, with rods communicating horizontally between 
them. An engine was made upon this plan, and answered 
extremely well. But at that period (1815) the mechani- 
cal skill of the country was not equal to the task of forg- 
ing cranked axles of the soundness and strength necessary 
to stand the jars incident to locomotive work; so my 
father was compelled to fall back upon a substitute which, 
though less simple and less efficient, was within the me- 
chanical capabilities of the workmen of that day, either 
for construction or repair. He adopted a chain, which 
rolled over indented wheels placed on the centre of each 
axle, and so arranged that the two pairs of wheels were 
effectually coupled and made to keep pace with each 
other. But these chains after a few years' use became 
stretched, and then the engines were liable to irregular- 
ity in their working, especially in changing from working 
back to forward again. Nevertheless, these engines con- 
tinued in profitable use upon the Killingworth Colliery 
Railway for some years. Eventually the chain was laid 
aside, and the wheels were united by rods on the outside 
instead of rods and crank-axles inside, as specified in the 



ROBERT STEPHENSON'S LETTER. 201 

original patent ; and this expedient completely answered 
the purpose required, without involving any expensive or 
difficult workmanship. 

"Another important improvement was introduced in 
this engine. The eduction steam had hitherto been 
allowed to escape direct into the open atmosphere ; but 
my father having observed the great velocity with which 
the smoke issued from the chimney of the same engine, 
thought that by conveying the eduction steam into the 
chimney, and there allowing it to escape in a vertical di- 
rection, its velocity would be imparted to the smoke from 
the engine, or to the ascending current of air in the chim- 
ney. The experiment was no sooner made than the 
power of the engine became more than doubled ; com- 
bustion was stimulated, as it were, by a blast; conse- 
quently, the power of the boiler for generating steam was 
increased, and in the same proportion, the useful duty of 
the engine was augmented. 

"Thus, in 1815 my father had succeeded in manufac- 
turing an engine which included the following important 
improvements on all previous attempts in the same di- 
rection : simple and direct communication between the 
cylinder and the wheels rolling upon the rails ; joint ad- 
hesion of all the wheels, attained by the use of horizon- 
tal connecting-rods ; and, finally, a beautiful method of 
exciting the combustion of fuel by employing the waste 
steam which had formerly been allowed to escape use- 
lessly. It is perhaps not too much to say that this 
engine, as a mechanical contrivance, contained the germ 
of all that has since been effected. It may be regarded, 
in fact, as a type of the present locomotive engine. 

" In describing my father's application of the waste 
steam for the purpose of increasing the intensity of com- 



202 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

bustion in the boiler, and thus increasing the power of the 
engine without adding to its weight, and while claiming 
for this engine the merit of being a type of all those which 
have been successfully devised since the commencement 
of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, it is necessary 
to observe that the next great improvement in the same 
direction, the ' multitubular boiler,' which took place 
some years later, could never have been used without 
the help of that simple expedient, the steam-blast, by 
which power only, the burning of coke was rendered 
possible. 

" I cannot pass over this last-named invention of my 
father's without remarking how slightly, as an original 
idea, it has been appreciated ; and yet how small would 
be the comparative value of the locomotive engine of the 
present day, without the application of that important 
invention. 

"Engines constructed by my father in the year 1818, 
upon the principles just described, are in use on the Kil- 
lingworth Colliery Railway to this very day (1856), con- 
veying, at the speed of perhaps five or six miles an hour, 
heavy coal-trains, probably as economically as any of the 
more perfect engines now in use." 

The invention of the steam-blast by George Stephenson 
in 1815 was fraught with the most important consequen- 
ces to railway locomotion ; and it is not saying too much 
to aver that the success of the locomotive has been in a 
great measure the result of its adoption. Without the 
steam-blast, by means of which the intensity of combus- 
tion is maintained at its highest point, producing a cor- 
respondingly rapid evolution of steam, high rates of speed 
could not have been kept up ; the advantages of the mul- 
titubular boiler (afterward invented) could never have 



THREE ENGINES ORDERED. 203 

been fully tested ; and locomotives might still have been 
dragging themselves unwieldily along at a rate of a little 
more than five or six miles an hour. 

As the period drew near for the opening of the line, 
the question of the tractive power to be employed was 
anxiously discussed. At the Brusselton decline, fixed 
engines must necessarily be made use of; but with re- 
spect to the mode of working the railway generally, it was 
decided that horses were to be largely employed, and 
arrangements were made for their purchase. 

Although locomotives had been regularly employed in 
hauling coal-wagons on the Middleton Colliery Railway, 
near Leeds, for more than twelve years, and on the Wylam 
and Killingworth Railways, near Newcastle, for more than 
ten years, great scepticism still prevailed as to the econ- 
omy of employing them for the purpose in lieu of horses. 
In this case, it would appear that seeing was not believing. 
The popular scepticism was as great at Newcastle, where 
the opportunities for accurate observation were the greatest, 
as anywhere else. In 1824 the scheme of a canal between 
that town and Carlisle again came up ; and although a 
few timid voices were raised on behalf of a railway, the 
general opinion was still in favor of a canal. The exam- 
ple of the Hetton Railway, which had been successfully 
worked by Stephenson's locomotives for two years past, 
was pointed to in proof of the practicability of a locomo- 
tive line between the two places ; but the voice of the 
press, as well as of the public, was decidedly against the 
" new-fangled roads." 

When such was the state of public opinion as to railway 
locomotion, some idea may be formed of the clear-sight- 
edness and moral courage of the Stockton and Darlington 
directors in ordering three of Stephenson's locomotive 



2C-4 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

engines, at a cost of several thousand pounds, against the 
opening of the railway. 

These were constructed after Stephenson's most ma- 
tured designs, and embodied all the improvements which 
he had contrived up to that time. No. i engine, the 
" Locomotion," which was first delivered, weighed about 
eight tons. It had one large flue, or tube, through 
the boiler, by which the heated air passed direct from 
the furnace at the one end, lined with fire-bricks, to the 
chimney at the other. The combustion in the furnace 
was quickened by the adoption of the steam-blast in the 
chimney. The heat raised was sometimes so great, and 
it was so imperfectly abstracted by the surrounding water, 
that the chimney became almost red-hot. Such engines, 
when put to their speed, were found capable of running 
at the rate of from twelve to sixteen miles an hour ; but 
they were better adapted for the heavy work of hauling 
coal-trains at low speed — for which, indeed, they were 
specially constructed — than for running at the higher 
speed afterward adopted. Nor was it contemplated by the 
directors as possible, at the time when they were ordered, 
that locomotives could be made available for the purposes 
of passenger travelling. Besides, the Stockton and Dar- 
lington Railway did not run through a district in which 
passengers were supposed to be likely to constitute any 
considerable portion of the traffic. 

We may easily imagine the anxiety felt by George Ste- 
phenson during the progress of the works toward comple- 
tion, and his mingled hopes and doubts — though the 
doubts were but few — as to the issue of this great ex- 
periment. When the formation of the line near Stockton 
was well advanced, the engineer one day, accompanied 
by his son Robert and John Dixon, made a journey of 



A GREA T DA Y. 205 

inspection of the works. The party reached Stockton, 
and proceeded to dine at one of the inns there. After 
dinner, Stephenson ventured on the very unusual measure 
of ordering in a bottle of wine, to drink success to the 
railway. John Dixon relates with pride the utterance of 
the master on the occasion. "Now, lads," said he to 
the two young men, " I venture to tell you that I think 
you will live to see the day when railways will supersede 
almost all other methods of conveyance in this country, 
— when mail-coaches will go by railway, and railroads 
will become the great highways for the king and all his 
subjects. The time is coming when it will be cheaper for 
a working man to travel on a railway than to walk on foot. 
I know there are great and almost insurmountable diffi- 
culties to be encountered, but what I have said will come 
to pass as sure as you now hear me. I only wish I may 
live to see the day, though that I can scarcely hope for, 
as I know how slow all human progress is, and with what 
difficulty I have been able to get the locomotive intro- 
duced thus far, notwithstanding my more than ten years' 
successful experiment at Killingworth." The result, how- 
ever, outstripped even George Stephenson's most sanguine 
expectations ; and his son Robert, shortly after his return 
from America in 1827, saw his father's locomotive gener- 
ally adopted as the tractive power on mining-railways. 

Tuesday, the 27th of September, 1825, was a great day 
for Darlington. The railway, after having been under 
construction for more than three years, was at length 
about to be opened. The project had been the talk of 
the neighborhood for so long that there were few people 
within a range of twenty miles who did not feel more or 
less interested about it. Was it to be a failure or a suc- 
cess ? Opinions were pretty equally divided as to the rail- 



206 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

way ; but as regarded the locomotive, the general belief was 
that it would " never answer." However, there was the 
locomotive " No. i " delivered upon the line, and ready 
to draw the first train of wagons on the opening day. 

A great concourse of people assembled on the occa- 
sion. Some came from Newcastle and Durham, many 
from the Aucklands, while Darlington held a general holi- 
day and turned out all its population. To give eclat to 
the opening, the directors of the company issued a pro- 
gramme of the proceedings, intimating the times at which 
the procession of wagons would pass certain points along 
the line. The proprietors assembled as early as six in the 
morning at the Brusselton fixed engine, where the work- 
ing of the inclined planes was successfully rehearsed. A 
train of wagons laden with coals and merchandise was 
drawn up the western incline by the fixed engine, a length 
of nineteen hundred and sixty yards in seven and a half 
minutes, and then lowered down the incline on the east- 
ern side of the hill, eight hundred and eighty yards, in five 
minutes. 

At the foot of the incline the procession of vehicles was 
formed, consisting of the locomotive engine No. i, driven 
by George Stephenson himself; after it, six wagons loaded 
with coals and flour ; then a covered coach containing 
directors and proprietors; next, twenty-one coal-wagons 
fitted up for passengers (with which they were crammed) ; 
and lastly, six more wagons loaded with coals. 

Strange to say, a man on a horse, carrying a flag with 
the motto of the company inscribed on it, Periadum pri- 
vatum utilltas publica} headed the procession ! A litho- 
graphic view of the great event, published shortly after, 
duly exhibits the horseman and his flag. It was not 

1 " The private risk is the public benefit." 



OUT AND BACK. 207 

thought so dangerous a place, after all. The locomotive 
was only supposed to be able to go at the rate of from 
four to six miles an hour, and an ordinary horse could 
easily keep ahead of that. 

Off started the procession, with the horseman at its 
head. A great concourse of people stood along the line. 
Many of them tried to accompany it by running, and some 
gentlemen on horseback galloped across the fields to 
keep up with the train. The railway descending with a 
gentle decline toward Darlington, the rate of speed was 
consequently variable. At a favorable part of the road 
Stephenson determined to try the speed of the engine, 
and he called upon the horseman with the flag to get out 
of his way ! Most probably, deeming it unnecessary to 
carry his periculum privatum farther, the horseman turned 
aside, and Stephenson "put on the steam." The speed 
was at once raised to twelve miles an hour, and, at a 
favorable part of the road, to fifteen. The runners on foot, 
the gentlemen on horseback, and the horseman with the 
flag were consequently soon left far behind. When the 
train reached Darlington, it was found that four hundred 
and fifty passengers occupied the wagons, and that the 
load of men, coals, and merchandise amounted to about 
ninety tons. 

At Darlington the procession was rearranged. The six 
loaded coal-wagons were left behind, and other wagons 
were taken on with a hundred and fifty more passengers, 
together with a band of music. The train then started 
for Stockton, — a distance of only twelve miles, — which 
was reached in about three hours. The day was kept 
throughout the district as a holiday; and horses, gigs, 
carts, and other vehicles, filled with people, stood along 
the railway, as well as crowds of persons on foot, waiting 



208 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

to see the train pass. The whole population of Stockton 
turned out to receive the procession, and, after a walk 
through the streets, the inevitable dinner in the Town 
Hall wound up the day's proceedings. 

The principal circumstances connected with the con- 
struction of the " Rocket," as described by Robert Ste- 
phenson to Mr. Smiles, may be briefly stated. The 
tubular principle was adopted in a more complete manner 
than had yet been attempted. Twenty-five copper tubes, 
each three inches in diameter, extended from one end of 
the boiler to the other, the heated air passing through 
them on its way to the chimney ; and the tubes being 
surrounded by the water of the boiler. It will be obvious 
that a large extension of the heating surface was thus 
effectually secured. The principal difficulty was in fitting 
the copper tubes in the boiler ends so as to prevent leak- 
age. They were manufactured by a Newcastle copper- 
smith, and soldered to brass screws which were screwed 
into the boiler ends, standing out in great knobs. When 
the tubes were thus fitted, and the boiler was filled with 
water, hydraulic pressure was applied ; but the water 
squirted out at every joint, and the factory floor was soon 
flooded. Robert went home in despair ; and in the first 
moment of grief he wrote to his father that the whole 
thing was a failure. By return of post came a letter from 
his father, telling him that despair was not to be thought 
of, — that he must "try again;" and he suggested a 
mode of overcoming the difficulty, which his son had al- 
ready anticipated and proceeded to adopt. It was to 
bore clean holes in the boiler ends, fit in the smooth cop- 
per tubes as tightly as possible, solder up, and then raise 
the steam. This plan succeeded perfectly ; the expansion 



THE STEAM-BLAST. 209 

of the copper completely filling up all interstices, and pro- 
ducing a perfectly water-tight boiler, capable of standing 
extreme external pressure. 

The mode of employing the steam-blast for the purpose 
of increasing the draught in the chimney, was also the 
subject of numerous experiments When the engine was 
first tried, it was thought that the blast in the chimney 
was not sufficiently strong for the purpose of keeping up 
the intensity of the fire in the furnace, so as to produce 
high-pressure steam with the required velocity. The ex- 
pedient was therefore adopted of hammering the copper 
tubes at the point at which they entered the chimney, 
whereby the blast was considerably sharpened ; and on a 
farther trial it was found that the draught was increased 
to such an extent as to enable abundance of steam to be 
raised. The rationale of the blast may be simply ex- 
plained by referring to the effect of contracting the pipe 
of a water-hose, by which the force of the jet of water is 
proportionately increased. Widen the nozzle of the pipe 
and the jet is, in like manner, diminished. So is it with 
the steam-blast in the chimney of the locomotive. 

Doubts were, however, expressed whether the greater 
draught obtained by the contraction of the blast-pipe were 
not counterbalanced in some degree by the pressure upon 
the piston. Hence a series of experiments was made 
with pipes of different diameters, and their efficiency was 
tested by the amount of vacuum that was produced in the 
smoke-box. The degree of rarefaction was determined 
by a glass tube fixed to the bottom of the smoke-box, and 
descending into a bucket of water, the tube being open 
at both ends. As the rarefaction took place, the water 
would of course rise in the tube, and the height to which 
it rose above the surface of the water in the bucket was 
H 



2IO STORIES OF INVENTION'. 

made the measure of the amount of rarefaction. These 
experiments proved that a considerable increase of draught 
was obtained by the contraction of the orifice ; accord- 
ingly, the two blast-pipes opening from the cylinders into 
either side of the " Rocket " chimney, and turned up 
within it, were contracted slightly below the area of the 
steam-ports ; and before the engine left the factory, the 
water rose in the glass tube three inches above the water 
in the bucket. 

The other arrangements of the " Rocket " were briefly 
these : The boiler was cylindrical with flat ends, six feet in 
length, and three feet four inches in diameter. The up- 
per half of the boiler was used as a reservoir for the steam, 
the lower half being filled with water. Through the lower 
part the copper tubes extended, being open to the fire- 
box at one end, and to the chimney at the other. The 
fire-box, or furnace, two feet wide and three feet high, 
was attached immediately behind the boiler, and was also 
surrounded with water. The cylinders of the engine were 
placed on each side of the boiler, in an oblique position, 
one end being nearly level with the top of the boiler at its 
after end, and the other pointing toward the centre of the 
foremost or driving pair of wheels, with which the con- 
nection was directly made from the piston-rod to a pin on 
the outside of the wheel. The engine, together with its 
load of water, weighed only four tons and a quarter ; and 
it was supported on four wheels, not coupled. The ten- 
der was four-wheeled, and similar in shape to a wagon, — 
the foremost part holding the fuel, and the hind part a 
water-cask. 

When the " Rocket " was finished, it was placed upon 
the Killingworth Railway for the purpose of experiment. 
The new boiler arrangement was found perfectly success- 



THE LIVERPOOL TRIAL. 211 

ful. The steam was raised rapidly and continuously, and 
in a quantity which then appeared marvellous. The 
same evening Robert despatched a letter to his father 
at Liverpool, informing him to his great joy, that the 
"Rocket" was "all right," and would be in complete 
working trim by the day of trial. The engine was shortly 
after sent by wagon to Carlisle, and thence shipped for 
Liverpool. 

The time so much longed for by George Stephenson 
had now arrived, when the merits of the passenger loco- 
motive were about to be put to the test. He had fought 
the battle for it until now, almost single-handed. En- 
grossed by his daily labors and anxieties, and harassed 
by difficulties and discouragements which would have 
crushed the spirit of a less resolute man, he had held 
firmly to his purpose through good and through evil re- 
port. The hostility which he had experienced from some 
of the directors opposed to the adoption of the locomotive, 
was the circumstance that caused him the greatest grief of 
all ] for where he had looked for encouragement, he found 
only carping and opposition. But his pluck never failed 
him ; and now the " Rocket " was upon the ground to 
prove, to use his own words, " whether he was a man of 
his word or not." 

Great interest was felt at Liverpool, as well as through- 
out the country, in the approaching competition. En- 
gineers, scientific men, and mechanics arrived from all 
quarters to witness the novel display of mechanical inge- 
nuity on which such great results depended. The public 
generally were no indifferent spectators, either. The pop- 
ulations of Liverpool, Manchester, and the adjacent towns 
felt that the successful issue of the experiment would 
confer upon them individual benefits and local advantages 



212 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

almost incalculable, while populations at a distance waited 
for the result with almost equal interest. 

On the day appointed for the great competition of loco- 
motives at Rainhill, the following engines were entered for 
the prize : — 

i. Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericsson's "Novelty." 

2. Mr. Timothy Hackworth's " Sanspareil." 

3. Messrs. R. Stephenson & Co.'s " Rocket." 

4. Mr. Burstall's "Perseverance." 

Another engine was entered by Mr. Brandreth, of Liv- 
erpool, — the " Cycloped," weighing three tons, worked 
by a horse in a frame, — but it could not be admitted to 
the competition. The above were the only four -exhib- 
ited, out of a considerable number of engines constructed 
in different parts of the country in anticipation of this 
contest, many of which could not be satisfactorily com- 
pleted by the day of trial. 

The day fixed for the competition was the 1st of Octo- 
ber ; but to allow sufficient time to get the locomotives 
into good working order, the directors extended it to the 
6th. On the morning of the 6th the ground at Rainhill 
presented a lively appearance, and there was as much 
excitement as if the St. Leger were about to be run. 
Many thousand spectators looked on, among whom were 
some of the first engineers and mechanicians of the day. 
A stand was provided for the ladies; the "beauty and 
fashion " of the neighborhood were present, and the side 
of the railroad was lined with carriages of all descriptions. 

It was quite characteristic of the Stephensons that 
although their engine did not stand first on the list for 
trial, it was the first that was ready ; and it was accordingly 
ordered out by the judges for an experimental trip. Yet 
the " Rocket " was by no means the " favorite " with 



"NOVELTY" AND " SANSPAREIL." 213 

either the judges or the spectators. Nicholas Wood has 
since stated that the majority of the judges were strongly 
predisposed in favor of the " Novelty," and that nine 
tenths, if not ten tenths, of the persons present were against 
the " Rocket " because of its appearance. 1 Nearly every 
person favored some other engine, so that there was 
nothing for the " Rocket " but the practical test. The 
first trip made by it was quite successful. It ran about 
twelve miles, without interruption, in about fifty-three 
minutes. 

The "Novelty" was next called out. It was a light 
engine, very compact in appearance, carrying the water 
and fuel upon the same wheels as the engine. The weight 
of the whole was only three tons and one hundred- weight. 
A peculiarity of this engine was that the air was driven or 
forced through the fire by means of bellows. The day 
being now far advanced, and some dispute having arisen 
as to the method of assigning the proper load for the 
" Novelty," no particular experiment was made farther than 
that the engine traversed the line by way of exhibition, 
occasionally moving at the rate of twenty-four miles an 
hour. The " Sanspareil," constructed by Mr. Timothy 
Hackworth, was next exhibited, but no particular experi- 
ment was made with it on this day. This engine differed 
but little in its construction from the locomotive last sup- 
plied by the Stephensons to the Stockton and Darlington 
Railway, of which Mr. Hackworth was the locomotive 
foreman. 

The contest was postponed until the following day ; but 
before the judges arrived on the ground, the bellows for 
creating the blast in the " Novelty " gave way, and it was 

1 It had a sort of resemblance to a grasshopper, caused by the angle at 
which the piston and cylinder were placed. 



214 STORIES OF INVENTION-. 

found incapable of going through its performance. A 
defect was also detected in the boiler of the " Sanspareil," 
and some farther time was allowed to get it repaired. The 
large number of spectators who had assembled to witness 
the contest were greatly disappointed at this postpone- 
ment ; but to lessen it, Stephenson again brought out the 
" Rocket," and attaching to it a coach containing thirty- 
four persons, he ran them along the line at the rate of from 
twenty-four to thirty miles an hour, much to their gratifica- 
tion and amazement. Before separating, the judges or- 
dered the engine to be in readiness by eight o'clock on 
the following morning, to go through its definitive trial 
according to the prescribed conditions. 

On the morning of the 8th of October the " Rocket " 
was again ready for the contest. The engine was taken to 
the extremity of the stage, the fire-box was filled with 
coke, the fire lighted, and the steam raised until it lifted 
the safety-valve loaded to a pressure of fifty pounds to the 
square inch. This proceeding occupied fifty-seven min- 
utes. The engine then started on its journey, dragging 
after it about thirteen tons weight in wagons, and made 
the first ten trips backward and forward along the two 
miles of road, running the thirty-five miles, including stop- 
pages, in an hour and forty-eight minutes. The second 
ten trips were in like manner performed in two hours and 
three minutes. The maximum velocity attained during 
the trial trip was twenty-nine miles an hour, or about three 
times the speed that one of the judges of the competition 
had declared to be the limit of possibility. The average 
speed at which the whole of the journeys were performed 
was fifteen miles an hour, or five miles beyond the rate 
specified in the conditions published by the company. 
The entire performance excited the greatest astonishment 



TRIAL CONTINUED. 21 5 

among the assembled spectators • the directors felt confi- 
dent that their enterprise was now on the eve of success ; 
and George Stephenson rejoiced to think that, in spite of 
all false prophets and fickle counsellors, the locomotive 
system was now safe. When the " Rocket," having per- 
formed all the conditions of the contest, arrived at the 
" grand stand " at the close of its day's successful run, Mr. 
Cropper — one of the directors favorable to the fixed- 
engine system — lifted up his hands, and exclaimed, "Now 
has George Stephenson at last delivered himself." 

Neither the " Novelty " nor the " Sanspareil " was ready 
for trial until the 10th, on the morning of which day an 
advertisement appeared, stating that the former engine was 
to be tried on that day, when it would perform more work 
than any engine on the ground. The weight of the car- 
riages attached to it was only seven tons. The engine 
passed the first post in good style ; but in returning, the 
pipe from the forcing-pump burst and put an end to the 
trial. The pipe was afterward repaired, and the engine 
made several trips by itself, in which it was said to have 
gone at the rate of from twenty-four to twenty- eight miles 
an hour. 

The "Sanspareil" was not ready until the 13th; and 
when its boiler and tender were filled with water, it was 
found to weigh four hundred-weight beyond the weight 
specified in the published conditions as the limit of four- 
wheeled engines ; nevertheless, the judges allowed it to run 
on the same footing as the other engines, to enable them 
to ascertain whether its merits entitled it to favorable con- 
sideration. It travelled at the average speed of about 
fourteen miles an hour with its load attached ; but at the 
eighth trip the cold-water pump got wrong, and the engine 
could proceed no farther. 



216 STORIES OF invention: 

It was determined to award the premium to the suc- 
cessful engine on the following day, the 14th, on which 
occasion there was an unusual assemblage of spectators. 
The owners of the " Novelty " pleaded for another trial, 
and it was conceded. But again it broke down. Then 
Mr. Hackworth requested the opportunity for making 
another trial of his " Sanspareil." But the judges had now 
had enough of failures, and they declined, on the ground 
that not only was the engine above the stipulated weight, 
but that it was constructed on a plan which they could not 
recommend for adoption by the directors of the company. 
One of the principal practical objections to this locomotive 
was the enormous quantity of coke consumed or wasted 
by it, — about six hundred and ninety-two pounds per 
hour when travelling, — caused by the sharpness of the 
steam-blast in the chimney, which blew a large proportion 
of the burning coke into the air. 

The " Perseverance " of Mr. Burstall was found unable 
to move at more than five or six miles an hour, and it was 
withdrawn from the contest at an early period. The 
" Rocket " was thus the only engine that had performed, 
and more than performed, all the stipulated conditions ; 
and it was declared to be entitled to the prize of ^500, 
which was awarded to the Messrs. Stephenson and Booth l 
accordingly. And farther to show that the engine had 
been working quite within its powers, George Stephenson 
ordered it to be brought upon the ground and detached 
from all incumbrances, when, in making two trips, it was 
found to travel at the astonishing rate of thirty-five miles 
an hour. t 

The " Rocket " had thus eclipsed the performances of 

1 Mr. Henry Booth, secretary to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway 
suggested to Mr. Stephenson the idea of a multitubular boiler. 



LETTER FROM A L TOON A. 21/ 

all locomotive engines that had yet been constructed, and 
outstripped even the sanguine expectations of its con- 
structors. It satisfactorily answered the report of Messrs. 
Walker and Rastrick, and established the efficiency of the 
locomotive for working the Liverpool and Manchester 
Railway, and indeed all future railways. The " Rocket " 
showed that a new power had been born into the world, 
full of activity and strength, with boundless capability of 
work. It was the simple but admirable contrivance of the 
steam-blast, and its combination with the multitubular 
boiler, that at once gave locomotion a vigorous life, and 
secured the triumph of the railway system. As has been 
well observed, this wonderful ability to increase and mul- 
tiply its powers of performance with the emergency that 
demands them, has made this giant engine the noblest 
creation of human wit, the very lion among machines. 

The success of the Rainhill experiment, as judged by 
the public, may be inferred from the fact that the shares of 
the company immediately rose ten per cent, and nothing 
farther was heard of the proposed twenty-one fixed en- 
gines, engine-houses, ropes, etc. All this cumbersome 
apparatus was thenceforth effectually disposed of. 

When the reading was over, Bedford said : " When I 
heard you were going to have George Stephenson this 
afternoon, I wrote to my cousin Prentiss Armstrong, who 
has been at the locomotive works at Altoona for several 
years, and asked him about locomotives nowadays, that I 
might be able to compare them with the locomotives of 
George Stephenson's time. This is his letter, which I '11 
read, if there be no objection : " — 

Dear Bedford, — Speaking roughly, a freight-engine 
of the " Consolidation " type (eight driving-wheels and two 



21 8 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

truck-wheels) weighs from forty-seven to forty-eight tons 
of two thousand pounds. On a road with no grades over 
twenty feet to the mile (i in 250) it will haul over one 
thousand tons at fifteen miles an hour. If the train is of 
merchandise, it will be of say fifty cars, each weighing ten 
tons and carrying ten tons. If it is of coal or ore, the 
cars will each carry twenty or twenty-five tons." 

[" The ' Rocket,' " said Bedford, " which was the suc- 
cessful engine at the Rainhill competition, weighed a little 
over four tons and had four wheels. Dragging a weight of 
thirteen tons in wagons, it made thirty-five miles in about 
two hours."] 

Our Engine No. 2 [continued the letter] made a mile 
on a level in forty-three seconds with no train, but there 
are very few such records. Two of our fast trains (four 
cars each, weighing twenty-five tons) make a schedule 
in one place (level) of nine miles in eight minutes. I 
have seen a record of a run on the Bound Brook route 
of four cars, ten miles in eight minutes. I think this must 
have been down hill. 

I hope these facts will answer your views. If there 's 
anything else that I can get up for you, I shall be glad to 
doit. 

Yours truly, 

Prentiss Armstrong 



XL 

ELI WHITNEY. 

HP HE young people all came in laughing. 
■*■ " And what is it? " said Uncle Fritz, good-naturedly. 

" It is this," said Alice, " that I say that all this is very 
entertaining about Palissy the Potter and Benvenuto Cel- 
lini ; and I have been boasting that I know as much of the 
steam-engine as Lucy did, who was ' sister to Harry.' But 
I do not see that this is going to profit Blanche when she 
shall make her celebrated visit to Mr. Bright, and when he 
asks her what is the last sweet thing in creels or in fly- 
frames." 

" Is it certain that Blanche is to go? " said Uncle Fritz, 
doubtfully. 

" Oh, dear, Uncle Fritz, do you know? " said Blanche, in 
mock heroics ; " are you in the sacred circle which decides ? 
Will the Vesuvius pass its dividend, or will it scatter its 
blessings right and left, so that we can go to Paris and all 
the world be happy ? " 

" I wish I knew," said Colonel Ingham ; " for on that 
same dividend depends the question whether I build four 
new rooms at Little Crastis for the accommodation of my 
young friends when they visit me there." 

" Could you tell us," said Fergus, " what is the cause of 
the depression in the cotton-manufacture?" 

"Don't tell him, Uncle Fritz," said Fanchon, "for the 
two best of reasons, — first, that half of us will not un- 



220 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

derstand if you do ; and second, that none of us will 
remember." 

Colonel Ingham laughed. " And third," he said, " that 
we are to talk about Inventions and Inventors, and we 
shall not get to Fergus's grand question till we come to the 
series on ' Political Economy and Political Economists.' 

" You are all quite right in all your suggestions and 
criticisms. It is quite time that you girls should know 
something of the industry which is important not only to 
all the Southern States, but to all the manufacturing States. 
Cotton is the cheapest article for clothing in the world, and 
the use of it goes farther and farther every year. The 
manufacture is also improving steadily. Thirty men, 
women, and children will make as much cotton cloth 
to-day as a hundred could make the year you were born, 
Hester. I saw cottons for sale to-day at four cents a yard 
which would have cost nearly three times, that money 
thirty years ago. So I have laid out for you these sketches 
of the life of Eli Whitney, on whose simple invention, as 
you remember, all this wealth of production may be said 
to depend. You college boys ought to be pleased to 
know, that within a year after this man graduated from 
Yale College, he had made an invention and set it a going, 
which entirely changed the face of things in his own 
country. At that moment there was so little cotton raised 
in America, that Whitney himself had never seen cotton 
wool or cotton seed, when he was first asked if he could 
make a machine which would separate one from the other. 
It was so little known^indeed, that when John Jay of New 
York negotiated a treaty of commerce with England in 
1 794, the year after Whitney's invention, he did not know 
that any cotton was produced in the United States. The 
treaty did not provide for our cotton, and had to be 



COTTON. 221 

changed after it was brought back to America. With this 
invention by Whitney, it was possible to clean cotton from 
the seed. The Southern States, which before had no 
staple of importance, had in that moment an immense ad- 
dition to their resources. Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, 
and Tennessee, besides the States in the old thirteen, were 
settled almost wholly to call into being new lands for 
raising cotton. To these were afterwards added Arkan- 
sas, Florida, and Texas. With this new industry slave 
labor became vastly more profitable ; and the institution 
of slavery, which would else have died out probably, re- 
ceived an immense stimulus. Fortunately for the country 
and the world, the Constitution had fixed the year 1808, 
as the end of the African slave trade. But, up to that 
date, slaves were pushed in with a constantly increasing 
rapidity, so that the new States were peopled very largely 
with absolute barbarians. There is hardly another in- 
stance in history where it is so easy to trace in a very few 
years, results so tremendous following from a single inven- 
tion by a single man. 

" Fortunately for us, Miss Lamb has just published a 
portrait of Eli Whitney in the ' Magazine of History.' 
Here it is, in the October number of the ' Magazine of 
History.' 

" x\s to processes of manufacture, of course we can 
learn little or nothing about them here. But you had 
better read carefully this article in Ure's ' Dictionary of 
Arts,' though it is a little old-fashioned, and then you will 
be prepared to make up parties to go out to the Hecla, or 
up to Lowell or Lawrence, where you can see with your 
own eyes. 

" And now I will read you a little sketch of the life of 
Eli Whitney." 



222 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

ELI WHITNEY. 

Eli Whitney was born at Westborough, Worcester 
County, Massachusetts, Dec. 8, 1765. His parents be- 
longed to the middle class in society, who, by the labors 
of husbandry, managed by uniform industry and strict fru- 
gality to provide well for a rising family. 

The paternal ancestors of Mr. Whitney emigrated from 
England among the early settlers of Massachusetts, and 
their descendants were among the most respectable farm- 
ers of Worcester County. His maternal ancestors, of the 
name of Fay, were also English emigrants, and ranked 
among the substantial yeomanry of Massachusetts. A 
family tradition respecting the occasion of their com- 
ing to this country may serve to illustrate the history 
of the times. The story is, that about two hundred years 
ago, the father of the family, who resided in England, a 
man of large property and great respectability, called to- 
gether his sons and addressed them thus : " America is 
to be a great country. I am too old to emigrate myself ; 
but if any one of you will go, I will give him a double 
share of my property." The youngest son instantly de- 
clared his willingness to go, and his brothers gave their 
consent. He soon set off for the New World, and landed 
in Boston, in the neighborhood of which place he pur- 
chased a large tract of land, where he enjoyed the satisfac- 
tion of receiving two visits from his venerable father. His 
son John Fay, from whom the subject of this memoir is 
immediately descended, removed from Boston to West- 
borough, where he became the proprietor of a large tract 
of land, since known by the name of the Fay Farm. 

From the sister of Mr. Whitney, we have derived some 
particulars respecting his childhood and youth, and we 



early inventions. 223 

shall present the anecdotes to our readers in the artless 
style in which they are related by our correspondent, be- 
lieving that they would be more acceptable in this simple 
dress than if, according to the modest suggestion of the 
writer, they should be invested with a more labored dic- 
tion. The following incident, though trivial in itself, will 
serve to show at how early a period certain qualities of 
strong feeling tempered by prudence, for which Mr. Whit- 
ney afterward became distinguished, began to display them 
selves. When he was six or seven years old he had 
overheard the kitchen maid, in a fit of passion, calling his 
mother, who was in a delicate state of health, hard names, 
at which he expressed great displeasure to his sister. 
" She thought," said he, " that I was not big enough to 
hear her talk so about my mother. I think she ought to 
have a flogging ; and if I knew how to bring it about, she 
should have one." His sister advised him to tell their 
father. " No," he replied, " it will hurt his feelings and 
mother's too ; and besides, it is likely the girl will say she 
never said so, and that would make a quarrel. It is best 
to say nothing about it." 

Indications of his mechanical genius were likewise de- 
veloped at a very early age. Of his early passion for 
such employments, his sister gives the following account : 
"Our father had a workshop, and sometimes made wheels 
of different kinds, and chairs. He had a variety of tools, 
and a lathe for turning chair-posts. This gave my brother 
an opportunity of learning the use of tools when very 
young. He lost no time ; but as soon as he could handle 
tools, he was always making something in the shop, and 
seemed not to like working on the farm. On a time, after 
the death of our mother, when our father had been absent 
from home two or three days, on his return he inquired of 



224 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

the housekeeper what the boys had been doing. She told 
him what B. and J. had been about. ' But what has Eli 
been doing?' said he. She replied he had been making 
a fiddle. * Ah,' said he, despondingly, ' I fear Eli will 
have to take his portion in fiddles.' He was at this time 
about twelve years old. His sister adds that this fiddle 
was finished throughout, like a common violin, and made 
tolerably good music. It was examined by many persons, 
and all pronounced it to be a remarkable piece of work 
for such a boy to perform. From this time he was em- 
ployed to repair violins, and had many nice jobs, which 
were always executed to the entire satisfaction, and often 
to the astonishment, of his customers. His father's watch 
being the greatest piece of mechanism that had yet pre- 
sented itself to his observation, he was extremely desirous 
of examining its interior construction, but was not permit- 
ted to do so. One Sunday morning, observing that his 
father was going to meeting, and would leave at home the 
wonderful little machine, he immediately feigned illness as 
an apology for not going to church. As soon as the fam- 
ily were out of sight, he flew to the room where the watch 
hung, and taking it down he was so delighted with its 
motions that he took it all to pieces before he thought of 
the consequences of his rash deed ; for his father was a 
stern parent, and punishment would have been the reward 
of his idle curiosity, had the mischief been detected. He, 
however, put all the work so neatly together that his father 
never discovered his audacity until he himself told him, 
many years afterwards. 

" Whitney lost his mother at an early age, and when he 
was thirteen years old his father married a second time. 
His stepmother, among her articles of furniture, had a 
handsome set of table knives that she valued very highly. 



WHITNEY'S YOUTH. 225 

Whitney could not but see this, and said to her, ' I could 
make as good ones if I had tools, and I could make the ne- 
cessary tools if I had a few common tools to make them 
with.' His stepmother thought he was deriding her, and was 
much displeased ; but it so happened, not long afterwards, 
that one of the knives got broken, and he made one ex- 
actly like it in every respect except the stamp on the blade. 
This he would likewise have executed, had not the tools 
required been too expensive for his slender resources." 

When Whitney was fifteen or sixteen years of age he 
suggested to his father an enterprise, which was an earnest 
of the similar undertakings in which he engaged on a far 
greater scale in later life. This being the time of the 
Revolutionary War, nails were in great demand and bore 
a high price. At that period nails were made chiefly by 
hand, with little aid from machinery. Young Whitney 
proposed to his father to procure him a few tools, and to 
permit him to set up the manufacture. His father con- 
sented ; and he went steadily to work, and suffered nothing 
to divert him from his task until his day's work was com- 
pleted. By extraordinary diligence he gained time to 
make tools for his own use, and to put in knife-blades, and 
to perform many other curious little jobs which exceeded 
the skill of the country artisans. At this laborious occupa- 
tion the enterprising boy wrought alone, with great success, 
and with much profit to his father, for two winters, pursu- 
ing the ordinary labors of the farm during the summers. 
At this time he devised a plan for enlarging his business 
and increasing his profits. He whispered his scheme to 
his sister, with strong injunctions of secrecy ; and request- 
ing leave of his father to go to a neighboring town, without 
specifying his object, he set out on horseback in quest of 
a fellow-laborer. Not finding one as easily as he had 
15 



226 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

anticipated, he proceeded from town to town with a per- 
severance which was always a strong trait of his character 
until, at a distance of forty miles from home, he found 
such a workman as he desired. He also made his journey 
subservient to his mechanical skill, for he called at every 
workshop on his way and gleaned all the information he 
could respecting the mechanical arts. 

At the close of the war the business of making nails was 
no longer profitable ; but a fashion prevailing among the 
ladies of fastening on their bonnets with long pins, he 
contrived to make those with such skill and dexterity that 
he nearly monopolized the business, although he devoted 
to it only such seasons of leisure as he could redeem from 
the occupations of the farm, to which he now principally 
betook himself. He added to this article, the manufacture 
of walking-canes, which he made with peculiar neatness. 

In respect to his proficiency in learning while young, we 
are informed that he early manifested a fondness for fig- 
ures and an uncommon aptitude for arithmetical calcula- 
tions, though in the other rudiments of education he was 
not particularly distinguished. Yet at the age of fourteen 
he had acquired so much general information, as to be 
regarded on this account, as well as on account of his 
mechanical skill, a very remarkable boy. 

From the age of nineteen, young Whitney conceived 
the idea of obtaining a liberal education ; but, being warmly 
opposed by his stepmother, he was unable to procure the 
decided consent of his father, until he had reached the age 
of twenty-three years. But, partly by the avails of his 
manual labor and partly by teaching a village school, he 
had been so far able to surmount the obstacles thrown in 
his way, that he had prepared himself for the Freshman 
Class in Yale College, which he entered in May, 1789. 



TUTOR IN GEORGIA. 227 

The propensity of Mr. Whitney to mechanical inven- 
tions and occupations, was frequently apparent during his 
residence at college. On a particular occasion, one of the 
tutors, happening to mention some interesting philosophi- 
cal experiment, regretted that he could not exhibit it to 
his pupils, because the apparatus was out of order and 
must be sent abroad to be repaired. Mr. Whitney pro- 
posed to undertake this task, and performed it greatly to 
the satisfaction of the faculty of the college. 

A carpenter being at work upon one of the buildings of 
the gentleman with whom Mr. Whitney boarded, the latter 
begged permission to use his tools, during the. intervals of 
study ; but the mechanic, being a man of careful habits, 
was unwilling to trust them with a student, and it was only 
after the gentleman of the house had become responsible 
for all damages, that he would grant the permission. But 
Mr. Whitney had no sooner commenced his operations 
than the carpenter was surprised at his dexterity, and ex- 
claimed, " There was one good mechanic spoiled when 
you went to college." 

Soon after Mr. Whitney took his degree, in the autumn 
of 1792, he entered into an engagement with a Mr. B. of 
Georgia, to reside in his family as a private teacher. On 
his way thither, he was so fortunate as to have the company 
of Mrs. Greene, the widow of General Greene, who, with 
her family, was returning to Savannah after spending the 
summer at the North. At that time it was deemed unsafe 
to travel through our country without having had the 
small-pox, and accordingly Mr. Whitney prepared himself for 
the excursion, by procuring inoculation while in New York. 
As soon as he was sufficiently recovered, the party set sail 
for Savannah. As his health was not fully re-established, 
Mrs. Greene kindly invited him to go with the family to 



228 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

her residence at Mulberry Grove, near Savannah, and 
remain until he was recruited. The invitation was ac- 
cepted ; but lest he should not yet have lost all power of 
communicating that dreadful disease, Mrs. Greene had 
white flags (the meaning of which was well understood) 
hoisted at the landing and at all the avenues leading to 
the house. As a requital for her hospitality, her guest 
procured the virus and inoculated all the servants of the 
household, more than fifty in number, and carried them 
safely through the disorder. 

Mr. Whitney had scarcely set his foot in Georgia, before 
he was met by a disappointment which was an earnest of 
that long series of adverse events which, with scarcely an 
exception, attended all his future negotiations in the same 
State. On his arrival he was informed that Mr. B. had 
employed another teacher, leaving Whitney entirely without 
resources or friends, except those whom he had made in 
the family of General Greene. In these benevolent people, 
however, his case excited much interest ; and Mrs. Greene 
kindly said to him, " My young friend, you propose study- 
ing the law ; make my house your home, your room 
your castle, and there pursue what studies you please." 
He accordingly began the study of the law under that 
hospitable roof. 

Mrs. Greene was engaged in a piece of embroidery in 
which she employed a peculiar kind of fiame, called a 
tambour. She complained that it was badly constructed, 
and that it tore the delicate threads of her work. Mr. 
Whitney, eager for an opportunity to oblige his hostess, set 
himself to work and speedily produced a tambour-frame, 
made on a plan entirely new, which he presented to her. 
Mrs. Greene and her family were greatly delighted with it, 
and thought it a wonderful proof of ingenuity. 



THE NEED OF A COTTON-GIN. 22Q 

Not long afterwards a large party of gentlemen, consist- 
ing principally of officers who had served under the Gen- 
eral in the Revolutionary Army, came from Augusta and 
the upper country, to visit the family of General Greene. 
They fell into conversation upon the state of agriculture 
among them, and expressed great regret that there was no 
means of cleansing the green seed cotton, or separating it 
from its seed, since all the lands which were unsuitable for 
the cultivation of rice, would yield large crops of cotton. 
But until ingenuity could devise some machine which 
would greatly facilitate the process of cleaning, it was vain 
to think of raising cotton for market. Separating one 
pound of the clean staple from the seed was a day's work 
for a woman ; but the time usually devoted to picking 
cotton was the evening, after the labor of the field was 
over. Then the slaves — men, women, and children — were 
collected in circles, with one whose duty it was to rouse 
the dozing and quicken the indolent. While the company 
were engaged in this conversation, " Gentlemen," said 
Mrs. Greene, " apply to my young friend Mr. Whitney ; 
he can make anything." Upon which she conducted 
them into a neighboring room, and showed them her tam- 
bour-frame and a number of toys which Mr. Whitney had 
made or repaired for the children. She then introduced 
the gentlemen to Whitney himself, extolling his genius 
and commending him to their notice and friendship. He 
modestly disclaimed all pretensions to mechanical genius ; 
and when they named their object, he replied that he had 
never seen either cotton or cotton seed in his life. Mrs. 
Greene said to one of the gentlemen, " I have accom- 
plished my aim. Mr. Whitney is a very deserving young 
man, and to bring him into notice was my object. The 
interest which our friends now feel for him will, I hope, 



230 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

lead to his getting some employment to enable him to 
prosecute the study of the law." 

But a new turn, that no one of the company dreamed of, 
had been given to Mr. Whitney's views. It being out of 
season for cotton in the seed, he went to Savannah and 
searched among the warehouses and boats until he found 
a small parcel of it. This he carried home, and communi- 
cated his intentions to Mr. Miller, who warmly encouraged 
him, and assigned him a room in the basement of the house, 
where he set himself to work with such rude materials and 
instruments as a Georgia plantation afforded. With these 
resources, however, he made tools better suited to his pur- 
pose, and drew his own wire (of which the teeth of the 
earliest gins were made), — an article which was not at that 
time to be found in the market of Savannah. Mrs. Greene 
and Mr. Miller were the only persons ever admitted to his 
workshop, and the only persons who knew in what way he 
was employing himself. The many hours he spent in his 
mysterious pursuits, afforded matter of great curiosity and 
often of raillery to the younger members of the family. 
Near the close of the winter, the machine was so nearly 
completed as to leave no doubt of its success. 

Mrs. Greene was eager to communicate to her numerous 
friends the knowledge of this important invention, pecul- 
iarly important at that time, because then the market was 
glutted with all those articles which were suited to the cli- 
mate and soil of Georgia, and nothing could be found to 
give occupation to the negroes and support to the white 
inhabitants. This opened suddenly to the planters bound- 
less resources of wealth, and rendered the occupations of 
the slaves less unhealthy and laborious than they had been 
before. 

Mrs. Greene, therefore, invited to her house gentlemen 



PfflNEAS MILLER. 23 1 

from different parts of the State ; and on the first day aftei 
they had assembled, she conducted them to a temporary 
building which had been erected for the machine, and 
they saw with astonishment and delight, that more cotton 
could be separated from the seed in one day, by the labor 
of a single hand, than could be done in the usual manner 
in the space of many months. 

Mr. Whitney might now have indulged in bright reveries 
of fortune and of fame ; but we shall have various oppor- 
tunities of seeing that he tempered his inventive genius 
with an unusual share of the calm, considerate qualities of 
the financier. iVlthough urged by his friends to secure a 
patent and devote himself to the manufacture and intro- 
duction of his machines, he coolly replied that, on account 
of the great expenses and trouble which always attend the 
introduction of a new invention, and the difficulty of 
enforcing a law in favor of patentees, in opposition to 
the individual interests of so large a number of persons as 
would be concerned in the culture of this article, it was 
with great reluctance that he should consent to relinquish 
the hopes of a lucrative profession, for which he had been 
destined, with an expectation of indemnity either from the 
justice or the gratitude of his countrymen, even should 
the invention answer the most sanguine anticipations of 
his friends. 

The individual who contributed most to incite him to 
persevere in the undertaking, was Phineas Miller. Mr. 
Miller was a native of Connecticut and a graduate of Yale 
College. Like Mr. Whitney, soon after he had completed 
his education at college, he came to Georgia as a private 
teacher in the family of General Greene, and after the de- 
cease of the General, he became the husband of Mrs. 
Greene. He had qualified himself for the profession of 



232 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

the law, and was a gentleman of cultivated mind and 
superior talents ; but he was of an ardent temperament, 
and therefore well fitted to enter with zeal into the views 
which the genius of his friend had laid open to him. He 
also had considerable funds at command, and proposed 
to Mr. Whitney to become his joint adventurer, and to 
be at the whole expense of maturing the invention until it 
should be patented. If the machine should succeed in its 
intended operation, the parties agreed, under legal formali- 
ties, " that the profits and advantages arising therefrom, as 
well as all privileges and emoluments to be derived from 
patenting, making, vending, and working the same, should 
be mutually and equally shared between them." This 
instrument bears date May 27, 1793; and immediately 
afterward they commenced business under the firm of 
Miller and Whitney. 

An invention so important to the agricultural interest 
(and, as it has proved, to every department of human 
industry) could not long remain a secret. The knowl- 
edge of it soon spread through the State, and so great was 
the excitement on the subject, that multitudes of persons 
came from all quarters of the State to see the machine ; 
but it was not deemed safe to gratify their curiosity until 
the patent right had been secured. But so determined 
were some of the populace to possess this treasure, that 
neither law nor justice could restrain them ; they broke 
open the building by night, and carried off the machine. 
In this way the public became possessed of the invention ; 
and before Mr. Whitney could complete his model and 
secure his patent, a number of machines were in success- 
ful operation, constructed with some slight deviation from 
the original, with the hope of escaping the penalty foi 
evading the patent right. 



THE PATENT. 233 

As soon as the copartnership of Miller and Whitney 
was formed, Mr. Whitney repaired to Connecticut, where, 
as far as possible, he was to perfect the machine, obtain 
a patent, and manufacture and ship to Georgia such a 
number of machines as would supply the demand. 

Within three days after the conclusion of the copartner- 
ship, Mr. Whitney having set out for the North, Mr. Mil- 
ler commenced his long correspondence relative to the 
cotton-gin. The first letter announces that encroach- 
ments upon their rights had already begun. " It will 
be necessary," says Mr. Miller, " to have a consider- 
able number of gins made, to be in readiness to send out 
as soon as the patent is obtained, in order to satisfy the 
absolute demands, and make people's heads easy on the 
subject ; for I am informed of two other claimants for the 
honor of the inve?ition of cotton-gins, in addition to those 
we knew before." 

On the 20th of June, 1 793, Mr. Whitney presented his 
patent to Mr. Jefferson, then Secretary of State ; but the 
prevalence of the yellow fever in Philadelphia (which was 
then the seat of government) prevented his concluding 
the business relative to the patent until several months 
afterwards. To prevent being anticipated, he took, how- 
ever, the precaution to make oath to the invention before 
the notary public of the city of New Haven, which he 
did on the 28th of October of the same year. 

Mr. Jefferson, who had much curiosity in regard to 
mechanical inventions, took a peculiar interest in this 
machine, and addressed to the inventor an obliging letter, 
desiring farther particulars respecting it, and expressing a 
wish to procure one for his own use. 1 Mr. Whitney ac- 
cordingly sketched the history of the invention, and of the 

1 This letter is dated Nov. 24, 1793 



234 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

construction and performances of the machine. " It is 
about a year," says he, "since I first turned my attention 
to constructing this machine, at which time I was in the 
State of Georgia. Within about ten days after my first 
conception of the plan, I made a small though imperfect 
model. Experiments with this encouraged me to make 
one on a larger scale ; but the extreme difficulty of pro- 
curing workmen and proper materials in Georgia pre- 
vented my completing the larger one until some time in 
April last. This, though much larger than my first at- 
tempt, is not above one third as large as the machines may 
be made with convenience. The cylinder is only two 
feet two inches in length, and six inches in diameter. It 
is turned by hand, and requires the strength of one man 
to keep it in constant motion. It is the stated task of one 
negro to clean fifty weight (I mean fifty pounds after it is 
separated from the seed) of the green cotton seed per day." 
In the year 1812 Mr. Whitney made application to 
Congress for the renewal of his patent for the cotton- 
gin. In his memorial he presented a history of the strug- 
gles he had been forced to encounter in defence of his 
right, observing that he had been unable to obtain any 
decision on the merits of his claim until he had been 
eleven years in the law, and thirteen years of his patent 
term had expired. He sets forth that his invention had 
been a source of opulence to thousands of the citizens of 
the United States ; that, as a labor-saving machine, it 
would enable one man to perform the work of a thousand 
men ; and that it furnishes to the whole family of man- 
kind, at a very cheap rate, the most essential article of 
their clothing. Hence he humbly conceived himself en- 
titled to a further remuneration from his country, and 
thought he ought to be admitted to a more liberal par- 



SAVING TO THE COUNTRY. 235 

ticipation with his fellow-citizens in the benefits of his in- 
vention. Although so great advantages had been already 
experienced, and the prospect of future benefits was so 
promising, still, many of those whose interest had been 
most enhanced by this invention, had obstinately persisted 
in refusing to make any compensation to the inventor. 
The very men whose wealth had been acquired by the 
use of this machine, and who had grown rich beyond all 
former example, had combined their exertions to prevent 
the patentee from deriving any emolument from his inven- 
tion. From that State in which he had first made and 
where he had first introduced his machine, and which had 
derived the most signal benefits from it, he had received 
nothing ; and from no State had he received the amount 
of half a cent per pound on the cotton cleaned with his 
machines in one year. Estimating the value of the labor 
of one man at twenty cents per day, the whole amount 
which had been received by him for his invention was not 
equal to the value of the labor saved in one hour by his 
machines then in use in the United States. " This inven- 
tion," he proceeds, " now gives to the southern section of 
the Union, over and above the profits which would be 
derived from the cultivation of any other crop, an annual 
emolument of at least three millions of dollars." J The 
foregoing statement does not rest on conjecture, it is no 
visionary speculation, — all these advantages have been 
realized ; the planters of the Southern States have counted 
the cash, felt the weight of it in their pockets, and heard 
the exhilarating sound of its collision. Nor do the advan- 
tages stop here. This immense source of wealth is but just 
beginning to be opened. Cotton is a more cleanly and 

1 This was in 18 12, twenty years after the invention of the gin. The 
saving in 1885 is enormously greater. 



236 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

healthful article of cultivation than tobacco and indigo, 
which it has superseded, and does not so much impover- 
ish the soil. This invention has already trebled the value 
of the land through a large extent of territory ; and the 
degree to which the cultivation of cotton may be still aug- 
mented, is altogether incalculable. This species of cotton 
has been known in all countries where cotton has been 
raised, from time immemorial, but was never known as an 
article of commerce until since this method of cleaning it 
was discovered. In short (to quote the language of Judge 
Johnson), " if we should assert that the benefits of this in- 
vention exceed one hundred millions of dollars, we could 
prove the assertion by correct calculation." It is objected 
that if the patentee succeeds in procuring the renewal of 
his patent, he will be too rich. There is no probability 
that the patentee, if the term of his patent were extended 
for twenty years, would ever obtain for his invention one 
half as much as many an individual will gain by use of it. 
Up to the present time, the whole amount of what he has 
acquired from this source (after deducting his expenses) 
does not exceed one half the sum which a single individ- 
ual has gained by the use of the machine in one year. It 
is true that considerable sums have been obtained from 
some of the States where the machine is used ; but no 
small portion of these sums has been expended in pros- 
ecuting his claim in a State where nothing has been ob- 
tained, and where his machine has been used to the 
greatest advantage. 

There was much more which was curious, laid out in 
different books ; but the call came for supper, and the 
young people obeyed. 



XII. 

JAMES NASMYTH. 

THE STEAM-HAMMER. 

" A /[" Y dear Uncle Fritz, I have found something very 
precious." 

" I hope it is a pearl necklace, my dear," was his reply, 
"though I see no one who needs such ornaments less." 

Hester waltzed round the room, and dropped a very 
low courtesy before Uncle Fritz in acknowledgment of his 
compliment ; and all the others clapped their hands. They 
asked her, more clamorously than Uncle Fritz, what she 
had found. 

" I have found a man — " 

"That is more than Diogenes could." 

" Horace, I shall send you out of the room, or back on 
first principles. Do you not know that it is not nice to 
interrupt? " 

* I have found a man, Uncle Fritz, who is an inventor, 
a great inventor ; and he is very nice, and he likes people 
and people like him, and he always succeeds, — his things 
turn out well, like Dr. Franklin's ; and he says the world 
has always been grateful to him. He never sulks or com- 
plains ; he knows all about the moon, and makes wonder- 
ful pictures of it ; and he 's enormously rich, I believe, 
too, — but that 's not so much matter. The best of all is, 
that he began just as we begin. He had a nice father and 



238 stories of invention: 

a nice mother and a good happy home, and was brought 
up like good decent children. Now really, Uncle Fritz, 
you must n't laugh ; but do you not think that most of the 
people whose lives we read have to begin horridly ? They 
have to be beaten when they are apprentices, or their 
fathers and mothers have to die, or they have to walk 
through Philadelphia with loaves of bread under their arms, 
or to be brought up in poor-houses or something. Now, 
nothing of that sort happened to my inventor. And I am 
very much encouraged. For my father never beat me, and 
my mother never scolded me half as much as I deserved, 
and I never was in a poor-house, and I never carried a 
loaf of bread under my arm, and so I really was afraid I 
should come to no good. But now I have found my 
new moon-man, I am very much encouraged." 

The others laughed heartily at Hester's zeal, and 
Blanche asked what Hester's hero had invented, and 
what was his name. The others turned to Uncle Fritz 
half incredulously. But Uncle Fritz came to Hester's 
relief. 

" Hester is quite right," he said ; " and his name it is 
James Nasmyth. He has invented a great many things, 
quite necessary in the gigantic system of modern machine- 
building. He has chosen the steam-hammer for his de- 
vice. Here is a picture of it on the outside of his Life. 
You see I was ready for you, Hester." 

The children looked with interest on the device, and 
Fergus said that it was making heraldry do as it should, 
and speak in the language of the present time. 

Then Uncle Fritz bade Hester find for them a pas- 
rage in the biography where Mr. Nasmyth tells how he 
changed the old motto of the family. Oddly enough, 
the legend says that the first Nasmyth took his name 



MICHAEL NAESMYTH. 2^ 

after a romantic escape, when one of his pursuers, finding 

him disguised as a blacksmith, cried out, "Ye 're nie 

smyth." 

It is a little queer that this name should have been 

given to the family of a man, who, in his time, forged 

heavier pieces of iron than had ever been forged before, 

and, indeed, invented the machinery by which this should 

be done. The old Scotch family had for a motto the 

words 

" Non arte, sed Marte." 

With a very just pride, James Nasmyth has changed the 

motto, and made it 

" Non Marte, sed arte." 

That is, while they said, " Not by art, but by war," this 
man, who has done more work for the world, directly 
or indirectly, than any of Aladdin's genii, says, " Not by 
war, but by art." 

Hester was well pleased that their old friend justified 
her enthusiasm so entirely. He and she began dipping 
into her copy and his copy of the biography, which is 
one of the most interesting books of our time. 

JAMES NASMYTH. 

My grandfather, Michael Naesmyth, like his father and 
grandfather, was a builder and architect. The buildings 
he designed and erected for the Scotch nobility and 
gentry were well arranged, carefully executed, and thor- 
oughly substantial. I remember my father pointing out 
to me the extreme care and attention with which he 
finished his buildings. He inserted small fragments of 
basalt into the mortar of the external joints of the stones, 



240 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

at close and regular distances, in order to protect the 
mortar from the adverse action of the weather; and to 
this day they give proof of their efficiency. 

The excellence of my grandfather's workmanship was 
a thing that my own father impressed upon me when a 
boy. It stimulated in me the desire to aim at excellence 
in everything that I undertook, and in all practical matters 
to arrive at the highest degree of good workmanship. I 
believe that these early lessons had a great influence upon 
my future career. 

My father, Alexander Nasmyth, was the second son of 
Michael Nasmyth. He was born in his father's house in 
the Grassmarket, on the 9th of September, 1758. 

I have not much to say about my father's education. 
For the most part he was his own schoolmaster. I have 
heard him say that his mother taught him his ABC, 
and that he afterward learned to read at Mammy Smith's. 
This old lady kept a school for boys and girls at the top 
of a house in the Grassmarket There my father was 
taught to read his Bible and to learn his Carritch (the 
Shorter Catechism). 

My father's profession was that of a portrait-painter, to 
begin with ; but later he devoted himself to landscape- 
painting. But he did not confine himself to this pursuit. 
He was an all-round man, with something of the uni- 
versal about him. He was a painter, an architect, and a 
mechanic. Above all, he was an incessantly industrious 
man. 

I was born on the morning of the 19th of August, 1S0S, 
at my father's house in Edinburgh. I was named James 
Hall, after a dear friend of my father. My mother 
afterward told me that I must have been a "very no- 
ticin' bairn," as she observed me, when I was only 3. tew 



EARLY INVENTIONS. 24 1 

days old, following with my little eyes any one who hap- 
pened to be in the room, as if I had been thinking to my 
little self, " Who are you ? " 

When I was about four or five years old I was observed 
to give a decided preference to the use of my left hand. 
At first everything was done to prevent my using it in 
preference to the right, until my father, after viewing a 
little sketch I had drawn with my left hand, allowed me 
to go on in my own way. I used my right hand in all 
that was necessary, and my left in all sorts of practical 
manipulative affairs. My left hand has accordingly been 
my most willing and obedient servant, and in this way 
I became ambidexter. 

In due time I was sent to school ; and while at- 
tending the High School, from 181 7 to 1820, there was 
the usual rage among boys for spinning-tops, " pee- 
ries," and " young cannon." By means of my father's 
excellent foot-lathe I turned out the spinning-tops in capi- 
tal style, so much so that I became quite noted among 
my school companions. They all wanted to have speci- 
mens of my productions. They would give any price for 
them. The peeries were turned with perfect accuracy, 
and the steel-shod or spinning pivot was centred so as to 
correspond with the heaviest diameter at the top. They 
would spin twice as long as the bought peeries. When at 
full speed they would " sleep ; " that is, turn round without 
a particle of wavering. This was considered high art as 
regarded top-spinning. 

Flying-kites and tissue-paper balloons were articles 
that I was also somewhat famed for producing. There 
was a good deal of special skill required for the produc- 
tion of a flying-kite. It must be perfectly still and steady 
when at its highest flight in the air. Paper messengers 



242 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

were sent up to it along the string which held it to the 
ground. The top of the Calton Hill was the most 
favorite place for enjoying this pleasant amusement. 

Another article for which I became equally famous 
was the manufacture of small brass cannon. These I 
cast and bored, and mounted on their appropriate gun- 
carriages. They proved very effective, especially in the 
loudness of the report when fired. I also converted large 
cellar-keys into a sort of hand-cannon. A touch-hole 
was bored into the barrel of the key, with a sliding brass 
collar that allowed the key-guns to be loaded and primed, 
ready for firing. 

The principal occasion on which the brass cannon and 
hand-guns were used was on the 4th of June, — King 
George the Third's birthday. This was always celebrated 
with exuberant and noisy loyalty. The guns of the Castle 
were fired at noon, and the number of shots corresponded 
with the number of years that the king had reigned. 
The grand old Castle was enveloped in smoke, and the 
discharges reverberated along the streets and among the 
surrounding hills. Everything was in holiday order. The 
coaches were hung with garlands, the shops were orna- 
mented, the troops were reviewed on Bruntsfield Links, 
and the citizens drank the king's health at the Cross, 
throwing the glasses over their backs. The boys fired off 
gunpowder, or threw squibs or crackers, from morning 
till night. It was one of the greatest schoolboy events 
of the year. 

My little brass cannon and hand-guns were very busy 
that day. They were fired until they became quite hot. 
These were the pre-lucifer days. The fire to light the 
powder at the touch-hole was obtained by the use of a 
Hint, a steel, and a tinder-box. The flint was struck 



JUVENILE CHEMISTRY. 243 

sharply on the steel, a spark of fire consequently fell into 
the tinder-box, and the match (of hemp string, soaked in 
saltpetre) was readily lit and fired off the little guns. 

One of my attached cronies was Tom Smith. Our 
friendship began at the High School in 18 18. A simi- 
larity of disposition bound us together. Smith was the son 
of an enterprising general merchant at Leith. His father 
had a special genius for practical chemistry. He had 
established an extensive color- manufactory at Portobello, 
near Edinburgh, where he produced white lead, red lead, 
and a great variety of colors, — in the preparation of 
which he required a thorough knowledge of chemistry. 
Tom Smith inherited his father's tastes, and admitted me 
to share in his experiments, which were carried on in a 
chemical laboratory situated behind his father's house at 
the bottom of Leith Walk. 

We had a special means of communication. When 
anything particular was going on at the laboratory, Tom 
hoisted a white flag on the top of a high pole in his 
father's garden. Though I was more than a mile away, 
I kept a lookout in the direction of the laboratory with 
a spy-glass. My father's house was at the top of Leith 
Walk, and Smith's house was at the bottom of it. When 
the flag was hoisted I could clearly see the invitation to 
me to come down. I was only too glad to run down the 
Walk and join my chum, to take part in some interesting 
chemical process. Mr. Smith, the father, made me heart- 
ily welcome. He was pleased to see his son so much at- 
tached to me, and he perhaps believed that I was worthy 
of his friendship. We took zealous part in all the chem- 
ical proceedings, and in that way Tom was fitting himself 
for the business of his life. 

Mr. Smith was a most genial-tempered man. He was 



244 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

shrewd and quick-witted, like a native of York, as he was. 
I received the greatest kindness from him as well as from 
his family. His house was like a museum. It was full of 
cabinets, in which were placed choice and interesting 
objects in natural history, geology, mineralogy, and me- 
tallurgy. All were represented. Many of these speci- 
mens had been brought to him from abroad by his 
ship-captains, who transported his color manufactures and 
other commodities to foreign parts. 

My friend Tom Smith and I made it a rule — and in 
this we were encouraged by his father — that, so far as 
was possible, we ourselves should actually make the acids 
and other substances used in our experiments. We were 
not to buy them ready-made, as this would have taken the 
zest out of our enjoyment. We should have lost the 
pleasure and instruction of producing them by means of 
our own wits and energies. To encounter and overcome 
a difficulty is the most interesting of all things. Hence, 
though often baffled, we eventually produced perfect spe- 
cimens of nitrous, nitric, and muriatic acids. We distilled 
alcohol from duly fermented sugar and water, and rectified 
the resultant spirit from fusel-oil by passing the alcoholic 
vapor through animal charcoal before it entered the worm 
of the still. We converted part of the alcohol into sul- 
phuric ether. We produced phosphorus from old bones, 
and elaborated many of the mysteries of chemistry. 

The amount of practical information which we obtained 
by this system of making our own chemical agents, was 
such as to reward us, in many respects, for the labor we 
underwent. To outsiders it might appear a very trouble- 
some and roundabout way of getting at the finally desired 
result ; but I feel certain that there is no better method 
of rooting chemical or any other instruction deeply in our 



A MODEL ENGINE. 245 

minds. Indeed, I regret that the same system is not pur- 
sued by the youth of the present day. They are seldom 
if ever called upon to exert their own wits and industry to 
obtain the requisites for their instruction. A great deal is 
now said about technical education ; but how little there 
is of technical handiness or head work ! Everything is 
bought ready-made to their hands ; and hence there is no 
call for individual ingenuity. 

I left the High School at the end of 1820. I carried 
with me a small amount of Latin and no Greek. I do 
not think I was much the better for my small acquaint- 
ance with the dead languages. 

By the time I was seventeen years old I had acquired a 
considerable amount of practical knowledge as to the use 
and handling of mechanical tools, and I desired to turn 
it to some account. I was able to construct working 
models of steam-engines and other apparatus required for 
the illustration of mechanical subjects. I began with 
making a small working steam-engine, for the purpose of 
grinding the oil-colors used by my father in his artistic 
work. The result was quite satisfactory. Many persons 
came to see my active little steam-engine at work ; and 
they were so pleased with it that I received several orders 
for small workshop engines, and also for some models of 
steam-engines to illustrate the subjects taught at Mechan- 
ics' Institutions. 

I contrived a sectional model of a complete condensing 
steam-engine of the beam and parallel-motion construc- 
tion. The model, as seen from one side, exhibited every 
external detail in full and due action when the fly-wheel 
was moved round by hand ; while on the other, or sec- 
tional side, every detail of the interior was seen, with the 
steam-valves and air-pump, as well as the motion of the 



246 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

piston in the cylinder, with the construction of the piston 
and the stuffing-box, together with the slide-valve and 
steam-passages, all in due position and relative movement. 

I was a regular attendant at the Edinburgh School of 
Arts from 182 1 to 1826, meanwhile inventing original 
contrivances of various sorts. 

About the year 1827, when I was nineteen years old, 
the subject of steam-carriages to run upon common roads 
occupied considerable attention. Several engineers and 
mechanical schemers had tried their hands, but as yet no 
substantial results had come of their attempts to solve the 
problem. Like others, I tried my hand. Having made a 
small working model of a steam carriage, I exhibited it 
before the members of the Scottish Society of Arts. The 
performance of this active little machine was so gratifying 
to the Society, that they requested me to construct one of 
such power as to enable four or six persons to be con- 
veyed along the ordinary roads. The members of the 
Society, in their individual capacity, subscribed ^60, 
which they placed in my hands, as the means of carrying 
out their project. 

I accordingly set to work at once. I had the heavy 
parts of the engine and carriage done at Anderson's foun- 
dry at Leith. There was in Anderson's employment a 
most able general mechanic, named Robert Maclaughlan, 
who had served his time at Carmichael's, of Dundee. An- 
derson possessed some excellent tools, which enabled me 
to proceed rapidly with the work. Besides, he was most 
friendly, and took much delight in being concerned in my 
enterprise. This " big job " was executed in about four 
months. The steam-carriage was completed and exhib- 
ited before the members of the Society of Arts. Many 
successful trials were made with it on the Queensferry 



HENRY MAUDSLEY. 247 

Road, near Edinburgh. The runs were generally of four 
or five miles, with a load of eight passengers, sitting on 
benches about three feet from the ground. 

The experiments were continued for nearly three months, 
to the great satisfaction of the members. 

The chief object of my ambition was now to be taken 
on at Henry Maudsley's works in London. I had heard 
so much of his engineering work, of his assortment of 
machine-making tools, and of the admirable organization 
of his manufactory, that I longed to obtain employment 
there. But I was aware that my father had not the means 
of paying the large premium required for placing me there, 
and I was also informed that Maudsley had ceased to take 
pupils, they caused him so much annoyance. My father 
and I went to London ; and Mr. Maudsley received us in 
the most kind and frank manner, and courteously invited 
us to go round the works. When this was concluded I 
ventured to say to Mr. Maudsley that " I had brought up 
with me from Edinburgh some working models of steam- 
engines and mechanical drawings, and I should feel truly 
obliged if he would allow me to show them to him." " By 
all means," said he ; " bring them to me to-morrow at 
twelve o'clock." I need not say how much pleased I 
was at this permission to exhibit my handiwork, and how 
anxious I felt as to the result of Mr. Maudsley's inspection 
of it. 

I carefully unpacked my working model of the steam- 
engine at the carpenter's shop, and had it conveyed, 
together with my drawings, on a handcart to Mr. Mauds- 
ley's, next morning, at the appointed hour. I was allowed 
to place my work for his inspection in a room next his 
office and counting-house. I then called at his residence, 
close by, where he kindly received me in his library. He 



248 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

asked me to wait until he and his partner, Joshua Field, 
had inspected my handiwork. 

I waited anxiously. Twenty long minutes passed. At 
last he entered the room, and from a lively expression in 
his countenance I observed in a moment that the great 
object of my long-cherished ambition had been attained. 
He expressed, in good round terms, his satisfaction at my 
practical ability as a workman, engineer, and mechanical 
draughtsman. Then, opening the door which led from 
his library into his beautiful private workshop, he said, 
" This is where I wish you to work, beside me, as my 
assistant workman. From what I have seen there is no 
need of an apprenticeship in your case." 

One of his favorite maxims was, " First get a clear notion 
of what you desire to accomplish, and then in all proba- 
bility you will succeed in doing it." Another was, " Keep 
a sharp lookout upon your materials ; get rid of every 
pound of material you can do without; put to yourself 
the question, ' What business has it to be there ? ' avoid 
complexities, and make everything as simple as possible." 
Mr. Maudsley was full of quaint maxims and remarks, — 
the result of much shrewdness, keen observation, and great 
experience. They were well worthy of being stored up in 
the mind, like a set of proverbs, full of the life and ex- 
perience of men. His thoughts became compressed into 
pithy expressions exhibiting his force of character and 
intellect. His quaint remarks on my first visit to his 
workshop and on subsequent occasions proved to me 
invaluable guides to " right thinking " in regard to all 
matters connected with mechanical structure. 

On the morning of Monday, May 30, 1829, I began 
my regular attendance at Mr. Maudsley's workshop, and 
remained with him until he died, Feb. 14, 183 1. It was 



MANCHESTER. 249 

a very sad thing for me to lose my dear old master, who 
always treated me like a friend and companion. At his 
death I passed over into the service of his worthy partner, 
Joshua Field, until my twenty-third year, when I intended 
to begin business for myself. 

I first settled myself at Manchester, but afterwards 
established a large business outside of Manchester on the 
Bridge water Canal. In August, 1836, the Bridgewater 
Foundry was in complete and efficient action. The en- 
gine ordered at Londonderry was at once put in hand, 
and the concern was fairly started in its long career of 
prosperity. The wooden workshops had been erected 
upon the grass, but the greensward soon disappeared. 
The hum of the driving-belts, the whirl of the machinery, 
the sound of the hammer upon the anvil, gave the place 
an air of busy activity. As work increased, workmen 
multiplied. The workshops were enlarged. Wood gave 
place to brick. Cottages for the accommodation of the 
work-people sprung up in the neighborhood, and what 
had once been a quiet grassy field became the centre of 
a busy population. 

It was a source of vast enjoyment to me, while engaged 
in the anxious business connected with the establishment 
of the foundry, to be surrounded with so many objects 
of rural beauty. The site of the works being on the west 
side of Manchester, we had the benefit of breathing pure 
air during the greater part of the year. The scenery 
round about was very attractive. Exercise was a source 
of health to the mind as well as the body. As it was 
necessary that I should reside as near as possible to the 
works, I had plenty of opportunities for enjoying the rural 
scenery of the neighborhood. I had the good fortune to 
become the tenant of a small cottage in the ancient village 



250 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

of Barton, in Cheshire, at the very moderate rental of fif- 
teen pounds a year. The cottage was situated on the 
banks of the river Irwell, and was only about six minutes' 
walk from the works at Patri croft. It suited my moderate 
domestic arrangements admirably. 

On June 16, 1840, a day of happy memory, I was mar- 
ried to Miss Anne Hartop. 

I was present at the opening of the Liverpool and Man- 
chester Railway, on Sept. 15, 1830. Every one knows 
the success of the undertaking. Railways became the 
rage. They were projected in every possible direction ; 
and when made, locomotives were required to work them. 
When George Stephenson was engaged in building his 
first locomotive, at Killingworth, he was greatly hampered, 
not only by the want of handy mechanics, but by the want 
of efficient tools. But he did the best that he could. 
His genius overcame difficulties. It was immensely to his 
credit that he should have so successfully completed his 
engines for the Stockton and Darlington, and afterward 
for the Liverpool and Manchester, Railway. 

Only a few years had passed, and self-acting tools were 
now enabled to complete, with precision and uniformity, 
machines that before had been deemed almost impracti- 
cable. In proportion to the rapid extension of railways 
the demand for locomotives became very great. As our 
machine tools were peculiarly adapted for turning out a 
large amount of first-class work, we directed our attention 
to this class of business. In the course of about ten years 
after the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Rail- 
way, we executed considerable orders for locomotives for 
the London and Southampton, the Manchester and Leeds, 
and the Gloucester Railway Companies. 

The Great Western Railway Company invited us to 



STEAM-HA MMER. 2 5 I 

tender for twenty of their very ponderous engines. They 
proposed a very tempting condition of the contract. It 
was that if, after a month's trial of the locomotives, their 
working proved satisfactory, a premium of ^100 was to 
be added to the price of each engine and tender. The 
locomotives were made and delivered ; they ran the stipu- 
lated number of test miles between London and Bristol in 
a perfectly satisfactory manner ; and we not only received 
the premium, but, what was much more encouraging, we 
received a special letter from the board of directors, stating 
their entire satisfaction with the performance of our en- 
gines, and desiring us to refer other contractors to them 
with respect to the excellence of our workmanship. This 
testimonial was altogether spontaneous, and proved ex- 
tremely valuable in other quarters. 

The date of the first sketch of my steam-hammer was 
Nov. 24, 1839. It consisted of, first, a massive anvil, on 
which to rest the work ; second, a block of iron consti- 
tuting the hammer, or blow-giving portion ; and, third, an 
inverted steam cylinder, to whose piston-rod the hammer- 
block was attached. All that was then required to pro- 
duce a most effective hammer, was simply to admit steam 
of sufficient pressure into the cylinder, so as to act on the 
under side of the piston, and thus to raise the hammer- 
block attached to the end of the piston-rod. By a very 
simple arrangement of a slide-valve under the control of 
an attendant, the steam was allowed to escape, and thus 
permit the massive block of iron rapidly to descend by its 
own gravity upon the work then upon the anvil. 

Thus, by the more or less rapid manner in which the 
attendant allowed the steam to enter or escape from the 
cylinder, any required number or any intensity of blows 
could be delivered. Their succession might be modified 



252 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

in an instant ; the hammer might be arrested and sus- 
pended according to the requirements of the work. The 
workman might thus, as it were, think in blows. He 
might deal them out on to the ponderous glowing mass, 
and mould or knead it into the desired form as if it were 
a lump of clay, or pat it with gentle taps, according to his 
will or at the desire of the forgeman. 

Rude and rapidly sketched out as it was, this my first 
delineation of the steam-hammer will be found to com- 
prise all the essential elements of the invention. There 
was no want of orders when the valuable qualities of the 
steam-hammer came to be seen and experienced; soon 
after I had the opportunity of securing a patent for it in 
the United States, where it soon found its way into the 
principal iron-works of the country. As time passed by, 
I had furnished steam-hammers to the principal foundries 
in England, and had sent them abroad even to Russia. 



But the English Government is proverbially slow in rec- 
ognizing such improvements. It was not till years had 
passed by, that Mr. Nasmyth was asked to furnish ham- 
mers to government works. Then he was invited to apply 
them to pile-driving. He says : — 

My first order for my pile-driver was a source of great 
pleasure to me. It was for the construction of some great 
royal docks at Devonport. An immense portion of the 
shore of the Hamoaze had to be walled in so as to exclude 
the tide. 

When I arrived on the spot with my steam pile-driver, 
there was a great deal of curiosity in the dockyard as to 
the action of the new machine. The pile-driving machine- 



PILE-DRIVER. 253 

men gave me a good-natured challenge to vie with them 
in driving down a pile. They adopted the old method, 
while I adopted the new one. The resident managers 
sought out two great pile logs of equal size and length, — 
seventy feet long and eighteen inches square. At a given 
signal we started together. I let in the steam, and the 
hammer at once began to work. The four-ton block 
showered down blows at the rate of eighty a minute, and 
in the course of four and a half minutes my pile was 
driven down to its required depth. The men working at 
the ordinary machine had only begun to drive. It took 
them upward of twelve hours to complete the driving of 
their pile ! 

Such a saving of time in the performance of similar 
work — by steam versus manual labor — had never before 
been witnessed. The energetic action of the steam-ham- 
mer, sitting on the shoulders of the pile high up aloft, and 
following it suddenly down, the rapidly hammered blows 
keeping time with the flashing out of the waste steam at 
the end of each stroke, was indeed a remarkable sight. 
When my pile was driven the hammer-block and guide- 
case were speedily re-hoisted by the small engine that did 
all the laboring and locomotive work of the machine, the 
steam-hammer portion of which was then lowered on to 
the shoulders of the next pile in succession. Again it set 
to work. At this the spectators, crowding about in boats, 
pronounced their approval in the usual British style of 
" Three cheers ! " My new pile-driver was thus acknowl- 
edged as another triumphant proof of the power of steam. 



In the course of the year 1 843 it was necessary for me 
to make a journey to St. Petersburg. My object was to 



254 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

endeavor to obtain an order for a portion of the locomo- 
tives required for working the line between that city and 
Moscow. The railway had been constructed under the 
engineership of Major Whistler, and it was shortly about 
to be opened. 

The Major gave me a frank and cordial reception, and 
informed me of the position of affairs. The Emperor, he 
said, was desirous of training a class of Russian mechanics 
to supply not only the locomotives, but to keep them 
constantly in repair. The locomotives must be made in 
Russia. I received, however, a very large order for 
boilers and other detail parts of the Moscow machines. 

I enjoyed greatly my visit to St. Petersburg, and my 
return home through Stockholm and Copenhagen. 

Travelling one day in Sweden, the post-house where I was 
set down was an inn, although without a sign-board. The 
landlady was a bright, cheery, jolly woman. She could not 
speak a word of English, nor I a word of Dannemora Swed- 
ish. I was very thirsty and hungry, and wanted something 
to eat. How was I to communicate my wishes to the land- 
lady? I resorted, as I often did, to the universal language 
of the pencil. I took out my sketch-book, and in a few 
minutes I made a drawing of a table with a dish of smok- 
ing meat upon it, a bottle and a glass, a knife and fork, a 
loaf, a salt-cellar, and a corkscrew. She looked at the 
drawing and gave a hearty laugh. She nodded pleasantly, 
showing that she clearly understood what I wanted. She 
asked me for the sketch, and went into the back garden 
to show it to her husband, who inspected it with great 
delight. I went out and looked about the place, which 
was very picturesque. After a short time the landlady 
came to the door and beckoned me in, and I found spread 
out on the table everything that I desired, — a broiled 



ASTRONOMY. 2$$ 

chicken, smoking hot from the gridiron, a bottle of capital 
home-brewed ale, and all the et ceteras of an excellent 
repast. I made use of my pencil in many other ways. 
I always found that a sketch was as useful as a sentence. 
Besides, it generally created a sympathy between me and 
my entertainers. 

As the Bridgewater Foundry had been so fortunate as 
to earn for itself a considerable reputation for mechanical 
contrivances, the workshops were always busy. They 
were crowded with machine tools in full action, and exhib- 
ited to all comers their effectiveness in the most satisfac- 
tory manner. Every facility was afforded to those who 
desired to see them at work ; and every machine and 
machine tool that was turned out became in the hands 
of its employers the progenitor of a numerous family. 

Indeed, on many occasions I had the gratification of 
seeing my mechanical notions adopted by rival or com- 
petitive machine constructors, often without acknowledg- 
ment ; though, notwithstanding this point of honor, there 
was room enough for all. Though the parent features 
were easily recognizable, I esteemed such plagiarisms as a 
sort of left-handed compliment to their author. I also 
regarded them as a proof that I had hit the mark in so 
arranging my mechanical combinations as to cause their 
general adoption ; and many of them remain unaltered to 
this day. 

My favorite pursuit, after my daily excursions at the 
foundry, was astronomy, I constructed for myself a tele- 
scope of considerable power, and, mounting my ten-inch 
instrument, I began my survey of the heavens. I be- 
gan as a learner, and my learning grew with experience. 
There were the prominent stars, the planets, the Milky 
Way, — with thousands of far-off suns, — to be seen. My 



256 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

observations were at first merely general ; by degrees they 
became particular. I was not satisfied with enjoying these 
sights myself. I made my friends and neighbors sharers 
in my pleasure, and some of them enjoyed the wonders of 
the heavens as much as I did. 

In my early use of the telescope I had fitted the specu- 
lum into a light square tube of deal, to which the eyepiece 
was attached, so as to have all the essential parts of the 
telescope combined together in the most simple and port- 
able form. I had often to move it from place to place in my 
small garden at the side of the Bridgewater Canal, in order 
to get it clear of the trees and branches which intercepted 
some object in the heavens which I wished to see. How 
eager and enthusiastic I was in those days ! Sometimes I 
got out of bed in the clear small hours of the morning, 
and went down to the garden in my night-shirt. I would 
take the telescope in my arms and plant it in some suit- 
able spot, where I might take a peep at some special planet 
or star then above the horizon. 

It became bruited about that a ghost was seen at Patri- 
croft ! A barge was silently gliding along the canal near 
midnight, when the boatman suddenly saw a figure in white. 
" It moved among the trees, with a coffin in its arms ! " 
The apparition was so sudden and strange that he imme- 
diately concluded that it was a ghost. The weird sight 
was reported all along the canal, and also at Wolverhamp- 
ton, which was the boatman's headquarters. He told the 
people at Patricroft, on his return journey, what he had 
seen ; and great was the excitement produced. The place 
was haunted \ there was no doubt about it ! After all, the 
rumor was founded on fact ; for the ghost was merely 
myself in my night-shirt, and the coffin was my telescope, 
which I was quietly shifting from one place to another, 



HAMMERFIELD. 2 $7 

in order to get a clearer sight of the heavens at mid- 
night. 

I had been for some time contemplating the possibility 
of retiring altogether from business. I had got enough of 
the world's goods, and was willing to make way for younger 
men. 

Many long years of pleasant toil and exertion had done 
their work. A full momentum of prosperity had been 
given to my engineering business at Patricroft. My share 
in the financial results accumulated, with accelerated ra- 
pidity, to an amount far beyond my most sanguine hopes. 
But finding, from long-continued and incessant mental 
efforts, that my nervous system was beginning to become 
shaken, especially in regard to an affection of the eyes, 
which in some respects damaged my sight, I thought the 
time had arrived for me to retire from commercial life. 

Behold us, then, settled down at Hammerfield for life. 
We had plenty to do. My workshop was fully equipped. 
My hobbies were there, and I could work them to my 
heart's content. The walls of our various rooms were 
soon hung with pictures and other works of art, suggestive 
of many pleasant associations of former days. Our library 
bookcase was crowded with old friends in the shape of 
books that had been read and re-read many times, until 
they had almost become part of ourselves. Old Lan- 
cashire friends made their way to us when " up in town," 
and expressed themselves delighted with our pleasant 
house and its beautiful surroundings. 

I was only forty-eight years old, which may be consid- 
ered the prime of life. But I had plenty of hobbies, per- 
haps the chief of which was astronomy. No sooner had I 
settled at Hammerfield than I had my telescopes brought 
out and mounted. The fine, clear skies with which we 
17 



258 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

were favored furnished me with abundant opportunities 
for the use of my instruments. I began again my investi- 
gations on the sun and the moon, and made some original 
discoveries. 

It is time to come to an end of my recollections. I 
have endeavored to give a brief resume of my life and 
labors. I hope they may prove interesting as well as 
useful to others. Thanks to a good constitution and a 
frame invigorated by work, I continue to lead, with my 
dear wife, a happy life. 



XIII. 

SIR HENRY BESSEMER. 

THE AGE OF STEEL. 

TN intervals of the reading meetings so many of the 
■*■ children's afternoons with Uncle Fritz had been 
taken up with excursions to see machinery at work, that 
their next meeting at the Oliver House was, as it proved, 
the last for the winter. 

They had gone to the pumping-station of the water- 
works, and had seen the noiseless work of the great steam- 
engine there. They had gone to the JEtna. Mills at 
Watertown, and with the eye of the flesh had seen " rovers " 
and shuttles, and had been taught what " slobbers " are. 
They had gone to Waltham, and had been taught some- 
thing of the marvellous skill and delicacy expended on the 
manufacture of watches. They had gone to Rand and 
Avery's printing-house ; and here they not only saw the 
processes of printing, but they saw steam power " con- 
verted " into electricity. They had gone to the Loco- 
motive Factory in Albany Street, and understood, much 
better than before, the inventions of George Stephenson, 
under the lead of the foremen in the shops, who had 
been very kind to them. 

On their last meeting Uncle Fritz reminded them of 
something which one of these gentlemen had taught 



260 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

them about the qualities of steel and iron ; and again of 
what they had seen of steel-springs at Waltham, when 
they saw how the balances of watches are arranged. 

" Some bright person has called our time ' the Age of 
Steel/ " he said. " You know Ovid's division was ' the 
Age of Gold, the Age of Silver, the Age of Brass, the Age 
of Iron.' And Ovid, who was in low spirits, thought the 
Age of Iron was the worst of all. Now, we begin to im- 
prove if we have entered the Age of Steel ; for steel is, 
poetically speaking, glorified iron. 

" Now the person to whom we owe it, that, in practice, 
we can build steel ships to-day where we once built iron 
ships, and lay steel rails to-day where even Stephenson 
was satisfied with iron, is Sir Henry Bessemer. The 
Queen knighted him in recognition of the service he had 
rendered to the world by his improvements in the pro- 
cesses of turning iron into steel. 

" It is impossible to estimate the addition which these 
improvements have made to the physical power of the 
world. I have not the most recent figures, but look at 
this," said Uncle Fritz. And he gave to John to read 
from a Life of Sir Henry Bessemer : — 

" Prior to this invention the entire production of cast 
steel in Great Britain was only about fifty thousand tons 
annually; and its average price, which ranged from ^50 
to ^"600, prohibited its use for many of the purposes to 
which it is now universally applied. After the invention, 
in the year 1877, tne Bessemer steel produced in Great 
Britain alone amounted to 750,000 tons, or fifteen times 
the total of the former method of manufacture, while the 
selling price averaged only ^10 per ton, and the coal 
consumed in producing it was less by 3,500,000 tons than 
would have been required in order to make the same 



BESSEMER' S FAMILY. 26 1 

quality of steel by the old, or Sheffield, process. The total 
reduction of cost is equal to about ^30,000,000 sterling 
upon the quantity manufactured in England during the 
year." 

The same book goes on to show that in other nations 
^20,000,000 worth of Bessemer steel was produced in 
the same year. 

"You see," said Uncle Fritz, "that here is an addition 
to the real wealth of the world such as makes any average 
fairy story about diamonds and rubies rather cheap and 
contemptible. 

" You will like Sir Henry Bessemer, Hester, because he 
was happily trained and had good chances when he was 
a boy. And you will be amused to see how his bright 
wife was brighter than all the internal- revenue people. 
She was so bright that she lost him the appointment 
which had enabled him to marry her. But I think he 
says somewhere, with a good deal of pride, that but for 
that misfortune, and the injustice which accompanied it, 
he should have probably never made his great inven- 
tions. It is one more piece of ' Partial evil, — universal 
good.' " 

Then the children, with Uncle Fritz's aid, began picking 
out what they called the plums from the accounts he 
showed them of Sir Henry Bessemer' s life. 



BESSEMER'S FAMILY. 

At the time of the great Revolution of 1792 there was 
employed in the French mint a man of great ingenuity, 
who had become a member of the French Academy of 
Sciences at the age of twenty-five. When Robespierre 



262 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

became Dictator of France, this scientific academician was 
transferred from the mint to the management of a public 
bakery, established for the purpose of supplying the popu- 
lace of Paris with bread. In that position he soon became 
the object of revolutionary frenzy. One day a rumor was 
set afloat that the loaves supplied were light in weight ; 
and, spreading like wildfire, it was made the occasion of a 
fearful tumult. The manager of the bakery was instantly 
seized and cast into prison. He succeeded in escaping, 
but it was at the peril of his life. Knowing the peril he 
was in, he lost no time in making his way to England ; 
and he only succeeded in doing so by adroitly using some 
documents he possessed bearing the signature of the Dic- 
tator. Landing in England a ruined man, his talents soon 
proved a passport to success. He was appointed to a 
position in the English mint ; and by the exercise of his 
ingenuity in other directions, he ere long acquired suffi- 
cient means to buy a small estate at Charlton, in Hert- 
fordshire. Such, in brief, were the circumstances that led 
to the settlement there of Anthony Bessemer, the father 
of Sir Henry Bessemer. The latter may be said to have 
been born an inventor. His father was an inventor before 
him. After settling in England, his inventive ingenuity 
was displayed in making improvements in microscopes 
and in type-founding, and in the discovery of what his 
son has happily described as the true alchemy. The 
latter discovery, which he made about the beginning of 
the present century, was a source of considerable profit to 
him. It is generally known that when gold articles are 
made by the jewellers, there are various discolorations left 
on their surface by the process of manufacture ; and in 
order to clear their surface, they are put into a solution 
of alum, salt, and saltpetre, which dissolves a large quantity 



TYPZ-ME TAL. 263 

of the copper that is used as an alloy. Anthony Bessemer 
discovered that this powerful acid not only dissolved the 
copper, but also dissolved a quantity of gold. He accord- 
ingly began to buy up this liquor ; and as he was the only 
one who knew that it contained gold in solution, he had 
no difficulty in arranging for the purchase of it from all 
the manufacturers in London. From that liquor he suc- 
ceeded in extracting gold in considerable quantities for 
many years. By some means that he kept secret (and 
the secret died with him), he deposited the particles of 
gold on the shavings of another metal, which, being after- 
wards melted, left the pure gold in small quantities. 
Thirty years afterward the Messrs. Elkington invented the 
electrotype process, which had the same effect. Anthony 
Bessemer was also eminently successful as a type-founder. 
When in France, before the Revolution of 1792, he cut a 
great many founts of type for Messrs. Firmin Didot, the 
celebrated French type-founders j and after his return to 
England he betook himself, as a diversion, to type-cutting 
for Mr. Henry Caslon, the celebrated English type-founder. 
He engraved an entire series, from pica to diamond, — a 
work which occupied several years. The success of these 
types led to the establishment of the firm of Bessemer 
and Catherwood as type-founders, carrying on business at 
Charlton. The great improvement which Anthony Besse- 
mer introduced into the art of type-making was not so 
much in the engraving as in the composition of the metal. 
He discovered that an alloy of copper, tin, and bismuth 
was the most durable metal for type ; and the working of 
this discovery was very successful in his hands. The 
secret of his success, however, he kept unknown to the 
trade. He knew that if it were suspected that the supe- 
riority of his type consisted in the composition of the 



264 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

metal, analysis would reveal it, and others would then be 
able to compete with him. So, to divert attention from 
the real cause, he pointed out to the trade that the shape 
of his type was different, as the angle at which all the 
lines were produced from the surface was more obtuse in 
his type than in those of other manufacturers, at the same 
time contending that his type would wear longer. Other 
manufacturers ridiculed this account of Bessemer's type, 
but experience showed that it lasted nearly twice as long 
as other type. The business flourished for a dozen years 
under his direction, and during that period the real cause 
of its success was kept a secret. The process has since 
been re-discovered and patented. Such were some of the 
inventive efforts of the father of one of the greatest inven- 
tors of the present age. 



HENRY BESSEMER. 

The youngest son of Anthony Bessemer, Henry, was 
born at Charlton, in Hertfordshire, in 18 13. His boy- 
hood was spent in his native village ; and while receiving 
the rudiments of an ordinary education in the neighboring 
town of Hitchin, the leisure and retirement of rural life 
afforded ample time, though perhaps little inducement, 
for the display of the natural bent of his mind. Notwith- 
standing his scanty and imperfect mechanical appliances, 
his early years were devoted to the cultivation of lus 
inventive faculties. His parents encouraged him in his 
youthful efforts. 

At the age of eighteen he came to London, " knowing 
no one," he says, ''and myself unknown, — a mere cipher 
in a vast sea of human enterprise." Here he worked as 



STAMPED PAPER. 26$ 

a modeller and designer with encouraging success. He 
engraved a large number of elegant and original designs 
on steel, with a diamond point, for patent-medicine labels. 
He got plenty of this sort of work to do, and was well 
paid for it. In his boyhood his favorite amusement was 
the modelling of objects in clay ; and even in this primi- 
tive school of genius he worked with so much success 
that at the age of nineteen he exhibited one of his beauti- 
ful models at the Royal Academy, then held at Somerset 
House. 

STAMPED PAPER. 

Thus he soon began to make his way in the metropo- 
lis j and in the course of the following year he was matur- 
ing some plans in connection with the production of 
stamps which he sanguinely hoped would lead him on to 
fortune. At that time the old forms of stamps were in 
use that had been employed since the days of Queen 
Anne ; and as they were easily transferred from old deeds 
to new ones, the Government lost a large amount annually 
by this surreptitious use of old stamps instead of new 
ones. The ordinary impressed or embossed stamps, such 
as are now employed on bills of exchange, or impressed 
directly on skins or parchment, were liable to be entirely 
obliterated if exposed for some months to a damp atmos- 
phere. A deed so exposed would at last appear as if 
unstamped, and would therefore become invalid. Special 
precautions were therefore observed in order to prevent 
this occurrence. It was the practice to gum small pieces of 
blue paper on the parchment ; and, to render it still more 
secure, a strip of metal foil was passed through it, and 
another small piece of paper with the printed initials of 



266 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

the sovereign was gummed over the loose end of the foil at 
the back. The stamp was then impressed on the blue 
paper, which, unlike parchment, is incapable of losing the 
impression by exposure to a damp atmosphere. Expe- 
rience showed, however, that by placing a little piece of 
moistened blotting-paper for a few hours over the paper, 
the gum became so softened that the two pieces of paper 
and the slip of foil could be easily removed from an old 
deed and then used for a new one. In this way stamps 
could be used a second and third time ; and by thus utiliz- 
ing the expensive stamps on old deeds of partnerships that 
were dissolved, or leases that were expired, the public 
revenue lost thousands of pounds every year. Sir Charles 
Persley, of the Stamp Office, told Sir Henry Bessemer 
that the Government were probably defrauded of ,£ 100,000 
per annum in that way. The young inventor at once set 
to work, for the express purpose of devising a stamp that 
could not be used twice. His first discovery was a mode 
by which he could have reproduced easily and cheaply 
thousands of stamps of any pattern. " The facility," he 
says, " with which I could make a permanent die from a 
thin paper original, capable of producing a thousand 
copies, would have opened a wide door for successful 
frauds if my process had been known to unscrupulous 
persons ; for there is not a government stamp or a paper 
seal of a corporate body that every common office clerk 
could not forge in a few minutes at the office of his 
employer or at his own home. The production of such 
a die from a common paper stamp is a work of only 
ten minutes ; the materials cost less than one penny ; no 
sort of technical skill is necessary, and a common copying- 
press or a letter stamp yields most successful copies." 
To this day a successful forger has to employ a skilful 



A NEW PLAN. 267 

die-sinker to make a good imitation in steel of the docu- 
ment he wishes to forge • but if such a method as that 
discovered and described by Sir Henry Bessemer were 
known, what a prospect it would open up ! Appalled at 
the effect which the communication of such a process 
would have had upon the business of the Stamp Office, 
he carefully kept the knowledge of it to himself; and to 
this day it remains a profound secret. 

More than ever impressed with the necessity for an 
improved form of stamp, and conscious of his own capa- 
bility to produce it, he labored for some months to 
accomplish his object, feeling sure that, if successful, 
he would be amply rewarded by the Government. To 
insure the secrecy of his experiments, he worked at them 
during the night, after his ordinary business of the 
day was over. He succeeded at last in making a stamp 
which obviated the great objection to the then exist- 
ing form, inasmuch as it would be impossible to trans- 
fer it from one deed to another, to obliterate it by 
moisture, or to take an impression from it capable of 
producing a duplicate. Flushed with success and confi- 
dent of the reward of his labors, he waited upon Sir 
Charles Persley at Somerset House, and showed him, by 
numerous proofs, how easily all the then existing stamps 
could be forged, and his new invention to prevent forgery. 
Sir Charles, who was much astonished at the one inven- 
tion and pleased with the other, asked Bessemer to call 
again in a few days. At the second interview Sir Charles 
asked him to work out the principle of the new stamping 
invention more fully. Accordingly Bessemer devoted five 
or six weeks' more labor to the perfecting of his stamp, 
with which the Stamp Office authorities were now well 
pleased. The design, as described by the inventor, was 



268 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

circular, about two and a half inches in diameter, and 
consisted of a garter with a motto in capital letters, 
surmounted by a crown. Within the garter was a shield, 
and the garter was filled with network in imitation of 
lace. The die was executed in steel, which pierced the 
parchment with more than four hundred holes ; and these 
holes formed the stamp. It is by a similar process that 
valentine makers have since learned to make the perfo- 
rated paper used in their trade. Such a stamp removed 
all the objections to the old one. So pleased was Sir 
Charles with it that he recommended it to Lord Althorp, 
and it was soon adopted by the Stamp Office. At the 
same time Sir Henry was asked whether he would be 
satisfied with the position of Superintendent of Stamps 
with ^500 or ,£600 per annum, as compensation for 
his invention, instead of a sum of money from the treas- 
ury. This appointment he gladly agreed to accept ; for, 
being engaged to be married at the time, he thought his 
future position in life was settled. Shortly afterwards he 
called on the young lady to whom he was engaged, and 
communicated the glad tidings to her, at the same time 
showing her the design of his new stamp. On explaining 
to her that its chief virtue was that the new stamps thus 
produced could not, like the old ones, be fraudulently 
used twice or thrice, she instantly suggested that if all 
stamps had a date put upon them they could not be used 
at a future time without detection. The idea was new to 
him ; and, impressed with its practical character, he at once 
conceived a plan for the insertion of movable dates in the 
die of his stamp. The method by which this is now done 
is too well known to require description here ; but in 
1833 it was a new invention. Having worked out the 
details of a stamp with movable dates, he saw that it was 



A DISAPPOINTMENT. 269 

more simple and more easily worked than his elaborate 
die for perforating stamps ; but he also saw that if he 
disclosed his latest invention it might interfere with his 
settled prospects in connection with the carrying out of 
his first one. It was not without regret, too, that he saw 
the results of many months of toil and the experiments 
of many lonely nights at once superseded ; but his con- 
viction of the superiority of his latest design was so strong, 
and his own sense of honor and his confidence in that of 
the Government was so unsuspecting, that he boldly went 
and placed the whole matter before Sir Charles Persley. 
Of course the new design was preferred. Sir Charles truly 
observed that with this new plan all the old dies, old 
presses, and old workmen could be employed. Among 
the other advantages it presented to the Government, it 
did not fail to strike Sir Charles that no Superintendent 
of Stamps would now be necessary, — a recommendation 
which the perforated die did not possess. The Stamp 
Office therefore abandoned the ingenuous and ingenious 
inventor. The old stamps were called in, and the new 
ones issued in a few weeks ; the revenue from stamps 
grew enormously, and forged or feloniously used stamps 
are now almost unheard of. The Stamp Office reaped 
a benefit which it is scarcely possible to estimate fully, 
while Bessemer did not receive a farthing. Shortly after 
the new stamp was adopted by Act of Parliament, Lord 
Althorp resigned, and his successors disclaimed all liability. 
When the disappointed inventor pressed his claim, he was 
met by all sorts of half-promises and excuses, which ended 
in nothing. The disappointment was all the more galling 
because, if Bessemer had stuck to his first-adopted plan, 
his services would have been indispensable to its execu- 
tion; and it was therefore through his putting a better 



27O STORIES OF INVENTION'. 

and more easily worked plan before them that his ser- 
vices were coolly ignored. " I had no patent to fall back 
upon," he says, in describing the incident afterward. " I 
could not go to law, even if I wished to do so ; for I was 
reminded, when pressing for mere money out of pocket, 
that I had done all the work voluntarily and of my own 
accord. Wearied and disgusted, I at last ceased to waste 
time in calling at the Stamp Office, — for time was pre- 
cious to me in those days, — and I felt that nothing but 
increased exertions could make up for the loss of some 
nine months of toil and expenditure. Thus sad and dis- 
pirited, and with a burning sense of injustice overpower- 
ing all other feelings, I went my way from the Stamp 
Office, too proud to ask as a favor that which was indubi- 
tably my right." 



GOLD PAINT. 

Shortly after he had taken out his first patent for his 
improvement in type-founding, his attention was acciden- 
tally turned to the manufacture of bronze powder, which 
is used in gold- work, japanning, gold-printing, and similar 
operations. While engaged in ornamenting a vignette in 
his sister's album, he had to purchase a small quantity of this 
bronze, and was struck with the great difference between 
the price of the raw material and that of the manufactured 
article. The latter sold for 112^. a pound, while the raw 
material only cost nd. a pound. He concluded that the 
difference was caused by the process of manufacture, 
and made inquiries with the view of learning the nature 
of the process. He found, however, that this manufac- 
ture was hardly known in England. The article was 



BROXZE-MAKING. 2 7 1 

supplied to English dealers from Nuremberg and other 
towns in Germany. He did not succeed, therefore, in 
finding any one who could tell him how it was produced. 
In these circumstances he determined to try to make it 
himself, and worked for a year and a half at the solution 
of this task. Other men had tried it and failed, and he 
was on the point of failing too. After eighteen months of 
fruitless labor he came to the conclusion that he could not 
make it, and gave it up. But it is the highest attribute of 
genius to succeed where others fail, and, impelled by this 
instinct, he resumed his investigations after six months' 
repose. At last success crowned his efforts. The profits 
of his previous inventions now supplied him with funds 
sufficient to provide the mechanical appliances he had 
designed. 

Knowing very little of the patent law, and considering 
it so insecure that the safest way to reap the full benefit of 
his new invention was to keep it to himself, he determined 
to work his process of bronze-making in strict secrecy ; and 
every precaution was therefore adopted for this purpose. 
He first put up a small apparatus with his own hands, and 
worked it entirely himself. By this means he produced 
the required article at \s. a pound. He then sent out a 
traveller with samples of it, and the first order he got was 
at Sos. a pound. Being thus fully assured of success, he 
communicated his plans to a friend, who agreed to put 
;£ 10,000 into the business, as a sleeping partner, in order 
to work the new manufacture on a larger scale. The entire 
working of the concern was left in the hands of Sir Henry, 
who accordingly proceeded to enlarge his means of pro- 
duction. To insure secrecy, he made plans of all the 
machinery required, and then divided them into sections. 
He next sent these sectional drawings to different engi- 



272 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

neering works, in order to get his machinery made piece- 
meal in different parts of England. This done, he collected 
the various pieces, and fitted them up himself, — a work 
that occupied him nine months. Finding everything at 
last in perfect working order, he engaged four or five 
assistants in whom he had confidence, and paid them very 
high wages on condition that they kept everything in the 
strictest secrecy. Bronze powder was now produced in 
large quantities by means of five self-acting machines, 
which not only superseded hand labor entirely, but were 
capable of producing as much daily as sixty skilled 
operatives could do by the old hand system. 

To this day the mechanical means by which his famous 
gold paint is produced remains a secret. The machinery 
is driven by a steam-engine in an adjoining room ; and 
into the room where the automatic machinery is at work 
none but the inventor and his assistants have ever entered. 
When a sufficient quantity of work is done, a bell is rung 
to give notice to the engine-man to stop the engine ; and in 
this way the machinery has been in constant use for over 
forty years without having been either patented or pirated. 
Its profit was as great as its success. At first he made 
1,000 per cent profit ; and though there are other pro- 
ducts that now compete with this bronze, it still yields 
300 per cent profit. " All this time," says the successful 
inventor thirty years afterward, " I have been afraid to im- 
prove the machinery, or to introduce other engineers into 
the works to improve them. Strange to say, we have thus 
among us a manufacture wholly unimproved for thirty 
years. I do not believe there is another instance of such 
a thing in the kingdom. I believe that if I had patented 
it, the fourteen years would not have run out without other 
people making improvements in the manufacture. Of the 



BESSEMER STEEL. 2/3 

five machines I use, three are applicable to other processes, 
one to color-making especially ; so much so that notwith- 
standing the very excellent income which I derive from 
the manufacture, I had once nearly made up my mind to 
throw it open and make it public, for the purpose of using 
part of my invention for the manufacture of colors. Three 
out of my five assistants have died ; and if the other two 
were to die and myself too, no one would know what the 
invention is." Since this was said (in 1871), Sir Henry 
has rewarded the faithfulness of his two surviving assistants 
by handing over to them the business and the factory. 



BESSEMER STEEL. 

Sir Henry Bessemer was first led to turn his attention 
to the improvement of the manufacture of iron by a re- 
mark of Commander Minie, who was superintending cer- 
tain trials of the results of Sir Henry's experiments in 
obtaining rotation of shot fired from a smooth-bore gun. 
"The shots," said Minie, "rotate properly; but if you 
cannot get stronger metal for your guns, such heavy pro- 
jectiles will be of little use." 

At this time Sir Henry had no connection with the iron 
or steel trade, and knew little or nothing of metallurgy. 
But this fact he has always represented as being rather an 
advantage than a drawback. " I find," he says, " in my 
experience with regard to inventions, that the most intelli- 
gent manufacturers invent many small improvements in 
various departments of their manufactures, — but, gener- 
ally speaking, these are only small ameliorations based on 
the nature of the operation they are daily pursuing ; while, 
on the contrary, persons wholly unconnected with any pap 
18 



274 



STORIES OF INVENTION. 



ticular business have their minds so free and untrammelled 
to new things as they are, and as they would present them- 
selves to an independent observer, that they are the men 
who eventually produce the greatest changes." It was in 
this spirit that he began his investigations in metallurgy. 
His first business was to make himself acquainted with the 
information contained in the best works then published 
on the subject. He also endeavored to add some practi- 
cal knowledge to what he learned from books. With this 
view he visited the iron-making districts in the north, and 
there obtained an insight into the working merits and 
defects of the processes then in use. On his return to 
London he arranged for the use of an old factory in St. 
Pancras, where he began his own series of experiments. 
He converted the factory into a small experimental " iron- 
works," in which his first object was to improve the qual- 
ity of iron. For this purpose he made many costly 
experiments without the desired measure of success, but 
not without making some progress in the right direction. 
After twelve months spent in these experiments he pro- 
duced an improved quality of cast iron, which was almost 
as white as steel, and was both tougher and stronger than 
the best cast iron then used for ordnance. Of this metal 
he cast a small model gun, which was turned and bored. 
This gun he took to Paris, and presented it personally to 
the Emperor, 1 as the result of his labors thus far. His 
Majesty encouraged him to continue his experiments, and 
desired to be further informed of the results. 

As Sir Henry continued his labors, he extended their 
scope from the production of refined iron to that of steel ; 

1 Napoleon III., under whose protection Bessemer had been experi- 
menting in projectiles when his attention was tinned to the manufacture of 
iron. 



THE FIRST BAR. 275 

and in order to protect himself, he took out a patent foi 
each successive improvement. One idea after another 
was put to the test of experiment ; one furnace after an- 
other was pulled down, and numerous mechanical appli- 
ances were designed and tried in practice. During these 
experiments he specified a multitude of improvements in 
the crucible process of making steel ; but he still felt that 
much remained to be done. At the end of eighteen 
months, he says, " the idea struck me " of rendering cast 
iron malleable by the introduction of atmospheric air into 
the fluid metal. His first experiment to test this idea was 
made in a crucible in the laboratory. He there found 
that by blowing air into the molten metal in the crucible, 
by means of a movable blow-pipe, he could convert ten 
pounds or twelve pounds of crude iron into the softest 
malleable iron. The samples thus produced were so sat- 
isfactory in all their mechanical tests that he brought them 
under the notice of Colonel Eardley Wilmot, then the 
Superintendent of the Royal Gun Factories, who expressed 
himself delighted and astonished at the result, and who 
offered him facilities for experimenting in Woolwich Arse- 
nal. These facilities were extended to him in the labora- 
tory by Professor Abel, who made numberless analyses of 
the material as he advanced with his experiments. The 
testing department was also put at his disposal, for testing 
the tensile strength and elasticity of different samples of 
soft malleable iron and steel. The first piece that was 
rolled at Woolwich was preserved by Sir Henry as a me- 
mento. It was a small bar of metal, about a foot long 
and an inch wide, and was converted from a state of pig 
iron in a crucible of only ten pounds. That small piece 
of bar, after being rolled, was tried, to see how far it was 
capable of welding ; and he was surprised to see how 



276 STORIES of ixvextion: 

easily it answered the severest tests. After this he com- 
menced experiments on a larger scale. He had proved 
in the laboratory that the principle of purifying pig iron 
by atmospheric air was possible ; but he feared, from what 
he knew of iron metallurgy, that as he approached the 
condition of pure soft malleable iron, he must of necessity 
require a temperature that he could not hope to attain 
under these conditions. In order to produce larger quan- 
tities of metal in this way, one of his first ideas was to 
apply the air to the molten iron in crucibles ; and accord- 
ingly, in October, 1855, he took out a patent embodying 
this idea. He proposed to erect a large circular furnace, 
with openings for the reception of melting-pots containing 
fluid iron, and pipes were made to conduct air into the 
centre of each pot, and to force it among the particles of 
metal. Having thus tested the purifying effect of cold 
air introduced into the melting iron in pots, he labored 
for three months in trying to overcome the mechanical 
difficulties experienced in this complicated arrangement. 
He wondered whether it would not be possible to dis- 
pense with the pipes and pots, and perform the whole 
operation in one large circular or egg-shaped vessel. The 
difficult thing in doing so, was to force the air all through 
the mass of liquid metal. While this difficulty was revolv- 
ing in his mind, the labor and anxiety entailed by pre- 
vious experiments brought on a short but severe illness ; 
and while he was lying in bed, pondering for hours upon 
the prospects of succeeding in another experiment with 
the pipes and pots, it occurred to him that the difficulty 
might be got over by introducing air into a large vessel 
from below into the molten mass within. 

Though he entertained grave doubts as to the practica- 
bility of carrying out this idea, chiefly owing to the high 



7'HE RESULT WAS STEEL! 



277 



temperature required to maintain the iron in a state of flu- 
idity while the impurities were being burned out, he deter- 
mined to put it to a working test ; and on recovering health 
he immediately began to design apparatus for this pur- 
pose. He constructed a circular vessel, measuring three 
feet in diameter and five feet in height, and capable of 
holding seven hundred-weight of iron. He next ordered 
a small, powerful air-engine and a quantity of crude iron 
to be put down on the premises in St. Pancras, that he 
had hired for carrying on his experiments. The name 
of these premises was Baxter House, formerly the resi- 
dence of old Richard Baxter ; and the simple experiment 
we are now going to describe has made that house more 
famous than ever. The primitive apparatus being ready, 
the engine was made to force streams of air, under high 
pressure, through the bottom of the vessel, which was 
lined with fire-clay ; and the stoker was told to pour the 
metal, when it was sufficiently melted, in at the top of it. 
A cast-iron plate — one of those lids which commonly 
cover the coal-holes in the pavement — was hung over the 
converter; and all being got ready, the stoker in some 
bewilderment poured in the metal. Instantly out came a 
volcanic eruption of such dazzling coruscations as had 
never been seen before. The dangling pot-lid dissolved 
in the gleaming volume of flame, and the chain by which 
it hung grew red and then white, as the various stages of 
the process were unfolded to the gaze of the wondering 
spectators. The air-cock to regulate the blast was beside 
the converting-vessel; but no one dared to go near it. 
much less deliberately to shut it. In this dilemma, how- 
ever, they were soon relieved by finding that the process 
of decarburization or combustion had expended all its 
fury ; and, most wonderful of all, the result was steel ! 



278 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

The new metal was tried. Its quality was good. The 
problem was solved. The new process appeared success- 
ful. The inventor was elated, as well he might be ! 

The new process was received with astonishment by all 
the iron-working world. It was approved by many, but 
scoffed at by others. As trials went on, however, the 
feeling against it increased. The iron so made was often 
" rotten," and no one could tell exactly why. 

Bessemer, however, continued to investigate everything 
for himself, regardless of all suggestions. Some ideas of 
permanent value were offered to him, but were set at 
nought. It was not till another series of independent 
experiments were made that he himself discovered the 
secret of failure. It then appeared that, by mere chance, 
the iron used in his first experiments was Blaenavon pig, 
which is exceptionally free from phosphorus ; and con- 
sequently, when other sorts of iron were thrown at random 
into the converter, the phosphorus manifested its refrac- 
tory nature in the unworkable character of the metal pro- 
duced. Analyses made by Professor Abel for Sir Henry 
showed that this was the real cause of failure. Once con- 
vinced of this fact, Sir Henry set to work for the purpose 
of removing this hostile element. He saw how phospho- 
rus was removed in the puddling-furnace, and he now 
tried to do the same thing in his converter. Another 
series of costly and laborious experiments was con- 
ducted ; and first one patent and then another was taken 
out, tried, and abandoned. His last idea was to make a 
vessel in which the converting process did not take place, 
but into which he could put the pig iron as soon as it was 
melted, along with the same kind of materials that were 
used in the puddling-furnace. He was then of opinion 
that he must come as near to puddling as possible, in 



DEFINITIONS. 2jg 

order to get the phosphorus out of the iron. Just as he 
was preparing to put this plan into operation, there arrived 
in England some pig iron which he had ordered from 
Sweden some months previously. When this iron, which 
was free from phosphorus, was put into the converter, it 
yielded, in the very first experiment, a metal of so high a 
quality that he at once abandoned his efforts to dephos- 
phorize ordinary iron. The Sheffield manufacturers were 
then selling steel at ^"6o a ton ; and he thought that as 
he could buy pig iron at ^7 a ton, and by blowing it a 
few minutes in the converter could make it into what was 
being sold at such a high price, the problem was solved. 

But there was yet one thing wanting. He had now 
succeeded in producing the purest malleable iron ever 
made, and that, too, by a quicker and less expensive 
process than was ever known before. But what he wanted 
was to make steel. The former is iron in its greatest 
possible purity ; the latter is pure iron containing a small 
percentage of carbon to harden it. There has been an 
almost endless controversy in trying to make a definition 
that will fix the dividing line that separates the one metal 
from the other. 1 

For our present purpose, suffice it to quote the account 
given in a popular treatise on metallurgy, published at the 
time when Bessemer was in the midst of his experiments. 

1 In Griiner's text-book on steel, he says : "In its properties, as well as 
in its manufacture, steel is comprised between the limits of cast and 
wrought iron. It cannot even be said where steel begins or ends. It is a 
series which begins with the most impure black pig iron, and ends with the 
sc-ftest and purest wrought iron. [Karsten stated this in these words in 
l?23.] Cast iron passes into hard steel in becoming malleable (natural 
steel for wire-mills, the ' Wildstahl' of the Germans) ; and steel, properly 
so called, passes into iron, giving in succession mild steel, steel of the 
nature of iron, steely iron, and granular iron." 



28o STORIES OF INVENTION. 

"Wrought iron," it says, "or soft iron, may contain no 
carbon ; and if perfectly pure, would contain none, nor 
indeed any other impurity. This is a state to be desired 
and aimed at, but it has never yet been perfectly attained 
in practice. The best as well as the commonest foreign 
irons always contain more or less carbon. . . . Carbon 
may exist in iron in the ratio of 65 parts to 10,000 with- 
out assuming the properties of steel. If the proportion be 
greater than that, and anywhere between the limits of C5 
parts of carbon to 10,000 parts of iron and 2 parts of 
carbon to 100 of iron, the alloy assumes the properties of 
steel. In cast iron the carbon exceeds 2 per cent, but in 
appearance and properties it differs widely from the hard- 
est steel. These properties, although we quote them, are 
somewhat doubtful ; and the chemical constitution of 
these three substances may, perhaps, be regarded as still 
undetermined." Now, in the Bessemer converter the car- 
bon was almost entirely consumed. In the small gun just 
described, 1 there were only 14 parts of carbon for 1,000,000 
parts of iron. Bessemer's next difficulty was to carburize 
his pure iron, and thus to make it into steel. " The 
wrought iron," says Mr. I. L. Bell, " as well as the steel 
made according to Sir Henry Bessemer's original plan, 
though a purer specimen of metal was never heard of 
except in the laboratory, was simply worthless. In this 
difficulty, a ray of scientific truth, brought to light one 
hundred years before, came to the rescue. Bergmann 
was one of the earliest philosophers who discarded all 
theory, and introduced into chemistry that process of 
analysis which is the indispensable antecedent of scientific 
system. This Swedish experimenter had ascertained the 

] A small cannon cast by Sir Henry, the description of which we have 
omitted. 



THE CONVERTER MOUNTED. 28 1 

existence of manganese in the iron of that country, and 
connected its presence with suitability for steel purposes." 
Manganese is a kind of iron exceptionally rich in carbon, 
and also exceptionally free from other impurities. Berze- 
lius, Rinman, Karsten, Berthier, and other metallurgists 
had before now discussed its effect when combined with 
ordinary iron ; and the French were so well aware that 
feiTO-manganese ores were superior for steel-making pur- 
poses that they gave them the name of mines d'acier. So 
Bessemer, after many experiments, discovered a method 
whereby, with the use of ferro-manganese, he could make 
what is known as mild steel. The process of manufacture, 
when described by Sir Henry Bessemer at Cheltenham in 
1856, 1 was so nearly complete, that only two important 
additions were made afterwards. One was the introduc- 
tion of the ferro-manganese for the purpose of imparting 
to his pure liquid iron the properties of "mild steel." 
The other was an improvement in the mechanical appara- 
tus. He found that when the air had been blown into 
the iron till all the carbon was expelled, the continuance 
of " the blow " afterward consumed the iron at a very 
rapid rate, and a great loss of iron thus took place. It 
was therefore necessary to cease blowing at a particular 
moment. At first he saw no practical way by which he 
could prevent the metal going into the air-holes in the 
bottom of the vessel below the level of the liquid mass, 
so as to stop them up immediately on ceasing to force the 
air through them ; for if he withdrew the pressure of air, 
the whole apparatus would be destroyed for a time. 
Here, again, his inventive genius found a remedy. He 
had the converter holding the molten iron mounted on an 

1 Immediately after his first successful experiment at St. PancraS; 
described above. 



282 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

axis, which enabled him at any moment he liked to turn 
it round and to bring the holes above the level of the 
metal ; whenever this was done the process of conversion 
or combustion ceased of itself, and the apparatus had 
only to be turned back again in order to resume the 
operation. This turning on an axis of a furnace weighing 
eleven tons, and containing five tons of liquid metal, at a 
temperature scarcely approachable, was a system entirely 
different from anything that had preceded it ; for it he 
took out what he considered one of his most important 
patents, "and," he says, "I am vain enough to believe 
that so long as my process lasts, the motion of the vessel 
containing the fluid on its axis will be retained as an abso- 
lute necessity for any form which the process may take 
at any future time." The patent for this invention was 
taken out about four years after his original patent for the 
converter. 

Uncle Fritz showed them a picture of this gigantic 
kettle, which holds this mass of molten metal and yet 
turns so easily. 

" But," said Helen, " you have a model of it here, 
Uncle Fritz." And she pointed to her Uncle Fritz's ink- 
stand, which is something the shape of a fat beet-root, 
with the point turned up to receive the ink. Uncle Fritz 
nodded his approval. These inkstands, which turn over 
on a little brazen axis, were probably first made by some 
one who had seen the great eleven-ton converters. 

Uncle Fritz showed the children the picture in the 
" Practical Magazine," and they spent some time together 
in looking over the pages of the volume for 1876. 

The Bessemer process was now perfect. Nearly four 
years had elapsed since its conception and first applica- 
tion ; and in addition to the necessary labor and anxiety 



AMERICAN WORKS. 283 

he had experienced, no less than ,£20,000 had been ex- 
pended in making experiments that were necessary to 
complete its success. It only remained to bring th*» 
process into general use. 



The young people asked quite eagerly whether they 
could see the processes of " conversion " anywhere, and 
were glad to be told that Bessemer steel is made in many 
parts of America. One of their young friends, who was 
educated at the "Technology," is in charge of a depart- 
ment at Steelton, in Pennsylvania, and they have all written 
letters to him. 

The American steel-makers have a great variety of ores 
to choose from, and they have found it possible, by using 
different ores, to avoid the difficulties which Mr. Bessemer 
first met in using the ores of England. 

And so far are the processes now simplified, that in 
many American establishments the molten iron is re- 
ceived liquid from the blast furnaces, and does not have 
to be reduced a second time in a cupola furnace, as was 
the iron used by Mr. Bessemer. There is no cooling, in 
such establishments, between the ore and the finished 
steel 



XIV. 

THE LAST MEETING. 

GOODYEAR. 

TX 7 HEN the day for the next meeting came, Uncle 
v * Fritz had a large collection of books and maga- 
zines in the little rolling racks and tables where such 
things are kept. But no one of them was opened. 

No. The young people appeared in great strength, all 
at the same moment, and notified him that he was to put 
on his hat and his light overcoat, and go with them on 
what they called the first "Alp " of the season. For there 
is a pretence in the little company that they are an Alpine 
Club, and that for eight months of the year it is their 
duty to climb the highest mountains near Boston. 

Now, the very highest of these peaks is the summit hill 
of the Blue Hills, to which indeed Massachusetts owes its 
name. For "Matta" in the Algonquin tongue meant 
"great," and "Chuset" meant "a hill." And a woman 
who was living on a little hummock near Squantum, just 
before Winthrop and the rest landed, was the sacred Sa- 
chem of the Massachusetts Indians. Hence the name of 
Mattachusetts Bay ; and then, by euphony or bad spell- 
ing, or both, Massachusetts. 

Uncle Fritz obeyed the rabble rout, as he is apt to do. 
He retired for a minute to put on heavier shoes, and, when 



MR. GOODYEAR. 285 

he reappeared, he took the seat of honor in the leading 
omnibus. And a very merry expedition they had to the 
summit, where, as the accurate Fergus told them, they 
were six hundred feet above the level of the sea. There 
was but little wood, and they were able to lie and sit in a 
large group on the ground just on the lee side of the hill, 
where they could look off on the endless sea. 

"Whom should you have told us about, had it rained?" 
said Mabel Fordyce. 

" Oh ! you were to have had your choice. There are 
still left many inventors. I had looked at Mr. Parton's Life 
of Goodyear, and the very curious brief prepared for the 
court about his patents. Half of you would not be here 
to-day but for that ingenious and long-suffering man." 

" Should not I have come ? " said Gertrude, incredu- 
lously. 

" Surely not," said Uncle Fritz, laughing. " I saw your 
water-proof in your shawl-strap. I know your mamma 
well enough to know that you would never have been 
permitted to come so far from home without that aegis, 
or without those trig, pretty overshoes. You owe water- 
proof and overshoes both to the steady perseverance of 
Goodyear and to the loyal help of his wife and daughters. 
Some day you must read Mr. Webster's eulogy on him 
and them. Indeed, he is the American Palissy. You 
hear a good deal of woman's rights ; but, really, modern 
women had no rights worth speaking of till Mr. Goodyear 
enabled them to go out-doors in all weathers. 

" I meant we should have an afternoon with the Good- 
years. Then I meant that you should know, Gertrude, 
where that slice of bread came from." 

" Well," said she, " I do not know much, but I da 
know that. It came out of the bread-box." 



286 STORIES OF IXVEXTION. 

" Very good," said the Colonel, laughing. " But some- 
body put it into the bread-box. And it is quite as well 
that you should know who put it in. American girls and 
American boys ought to know that men's prayer for * Daily 
Bread ' is answered more and more largely every year. 
They ought to know why. Well, the great reason is that 
reaping and binding after the reapers, nay, that sowing 
the corn, and every process between sowing and harvest, 
has been wellnigh perfected by the American inventors. 
So I had wanted to give a day or two to reapers and 
binders, and the other machinery of harvesting. Indeed, 
if our winter had been as long as poor Captain Greely's 
was, and if you had met me every week, we should have 
had a new invention for each one. Here are the telephone 
and the telegraph. Here is the use of the electric Ik lit. 
Here is the sewing-machine, with all its nice details, like 
the button-hole maker. Nay, every button is made by its 
own machinery. Here are carpets one quarter cheaper 
than they were only four years ago ; cotton cloths made 
more by machinery and less by hand labor ; nay, they tell 
us that the cotton is to be picked by a machine before 
long. 

" But these are things you must work up for yourselves. 
You are on a good track now, and have learned some of 
the principles of such study. 

" Go to the originals whenever you can. Read what 
you understand, and fall back on what you did not under- 
stand at first, so as to try it again." 

" Do you not think that all the great things have been 
invented, Uncle Fritz?" 

This was John Angier's rather melancholy question. 

" Not a bit of it, my boy. Certainly not for as keen 
eyes as vours and as handy hands. Let me tell you 



DIFFICUL TIES. 287 

what I heard President Dawson say. He is President of 
McGill University, and is counted one of the first physical 
philosophers in America. 

" He said this in substance : ' What will future times 
say of us, the men of the end of the nineteenth century ? 
They will say, "What was the ban on those men, what 
numbed them or held them still, as if in fear? Why did 
they not apply in daily life their own great discoveries of 
the central laws of Nature ? They were able to work out 
principles. Why could they not embody them in useful 
inventions? They discovered the Ocean of Truth, but 
they stood frightened on its shore. They found the 
great principles of science, and for their application they 
seem to have been satisfied when they had built the 
steam-engine, had devised the telegraph, the telephone, 
the phonograph, and when they had set the electric light 
a blazing." ' 

"You see, John, that he thinks there is enough more 
for you and the rest to invent and to discover." 

Then Uncle Fritz took from his ulster pocket Mr. 
Parton's volume of biographical sketches. 

" It is all very fine for you, Miss Alice," he said, " to 
lie there on your waterproof, and to be sure that even 
mamma will not scold when you go home. But take the 
book, and read, and see who has wept and who has 
starved that you might lie there." 

And Alice read the passages he had marked for her. 

The difficulty of all this may be inferred when we state 
that at the present time it takes an intelligent man a year 
to learn how to conduct the process with certainty, though 
he is provided, from the start, with the best implements 
and appliances which twenty years' experience has sug- 



288 . STORIES OF INVENTION. 

gested. And poor Goodyear had now reduced himself, 
not merely to poverty, but to isolation. No friend of his 
could conceal his impatience when he heard him pro- 
nounce the word " India-rubber." Business-men recoiled 
from the name of it. He tells us that two entire years 
passed, after he had made his discovery, before he had 
convinced one human being of its value. Now, too, his 
experiments could no longer be carried on with a few 
pounds of India-rubber, a quart of turpentine, a phial 
of aquafortis, and a little lampblack. He wanted the 
means of producing a high, uniform, and controllable de- 
gree of heat, — a matter of much greater difficulty than 
he anticipated. We catch brief glimpses of him at this 
time in the volumes of testimony. We see him waiting 
for his wife to draw the loaves from her oven, that he 
might put into it a batch of India-rubber to bake, and 
watching it all the evening, far into the night, to see what 
effect was produced by one hour's, two hours', three 
hours', six hours' baking. We see him boiling it in his 
wife's saucepans, suspending it before the nose of her tea- 
kettle, and hanging it from the handle of that vessel 
to within an inch of the boiling water. We see him 
roasting it in the ashes and in hot sand, toasting it before 
a slow fire and before a quick fire, cooking it for one hour 
and for twenty-four hours, changing the proportions of his 
compound and mixing them in different ways. No suc- 
cess rewarded him while he employed only domestic 
utensils. Occasionally, it is true, he produced a small 
piece of perfectly vulcanized India-rubber ; but upon sub- 
jecting other pieces to precisely the same process, they 
would blister or char. 

Then we see him resorting to the shops and factories 
in the neighborhood of Woburn, asking the privilege 



POVERTY. 289 

of using an oven after working hours, or of hanging 
a piece of India-rubber in the " man-hole " of the boiler. 
The foremen testify that he was a great plague to them, 
and smeared their works with his sticky compound ; but 
though they regarded him as little better than a trouble- 
some lunatic, they all appear to have helped him very 
willingly. He frankly confesses that he lived at this time 
on charity; for although he felt confident of being able 
to repay the small sums which pity for his family enabled 
him to borrow, his neighbors who lent him the money 
were as far as possible from expecting payment. Pretending 
to lend, they meant to give. One would pay his butcher's 
bill or his milk-bill; another would send in a barrel of 
flour ; another would take in payment some articles of the 
old stock of India-rubber ; and some of the farmers allowed 
his children to gather sticks in their fields to heat his 
hillocks of sand containing masses of sulphurized India- 
rubber. If the people of New England were not the 
most " neighborly " people in the world, his family must 
have starved, or he must have given up his experiments. 
But, with all the generosity of his neighbors, his children 
were often sick, hungry, and cold, without medicine, food, 
or fuel. One witness testifies: "I found, in 1839, that 
they had not fuel to burn nor food to eat, and did not 
know where to get a morsel of food from one day to an- 
other, unless it was sent in to them." We can neither 
justify nor condemn their father. Imagine Columbus 
within sight of the new world, and his obstinate crew 
declaring it was only a mirage, and refusing to row him 
ashore. Never was mortal man surer that he had a for- 
tune in his hand, than Charles Goodyear was when he 
would take a piece of scorched and dingy India-rubber 
from his pocket and expound its marvellous properties 
19 



290 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

to a group of incredulous villagers. Sure also was he that 
he was just upon the point of a practicable success. 
Give him but an oven and would he not turn you out fire- 
proof and cold-proof India-rubber, as fast as a baker can 
produce loaves of bread? Nor was it merely the hope 
of deliverance from his pecuniary straits that urged him 
on. In all the records of his career, we perceive traces 
of something nobler than this. His health being always 
infirm, he was haunted with the dread of dying before 
he had reached a point in his discoveries where other 
men, influenced by ordinary motives, could render them 
available. 

By the time that he had exhausted the patience of the 
foremen of the works near Woburn, he had come to the 
conclusion that an oven was the proper means of apply- 
ing heat to his compound. An oven he forthwith de- 
termined to build. Having obtained the use of a corner 
of a factory yard, his aged father, two of his brothers, his 
little son, and himself sallied forth, with pickaxe and 
shovels, to begin the work ; and when they had done all 
that unskilled labor could effect towards it, he induced 
a mason to complete it, and paid him in brick-layers' 
aprons made of aquafortized India-rubber. This first 
oven was a tantalizing failure. The heat was neither 
uniform nor controllable. Some of the pieces of India- 
rubber would come out so perfectly "cured" as to 
demonstrate the utility of his discovery ; but others, pre- 
pared in precisely the same manner, as far as he could 
discern, were spoiled, either by blistering or charring. 
He was puzzled and distressed beyond description ; and 
no single voice consoled or encouraged him. Out of the 
first piece of cloth which he succeeded in vulcanizing he 
had a coat made for himself, which was not an ornamental 



BURIED IN SNOW. 29 1 

garment in its best estate ; but, to prove to the unbelievers 
that it would stand fire, he brought it so often in contact 
with hot stoves, that at last it presented an exceedingly- 
dingy appearance. His coat did not impress the public 
favorably, and it served to confirm the opinion that he was 
laboring under a mania. 

In the midst of his first disheartening experiments with 
sulphur, he had an opportunity of escaping at once from 
his troubles. A house in Paris made him an advantageous 
offer for the use of his aquafortis process. From the 
abyss of his misery the honest man promptly replied, that 
that process, valuable as it was, was about to be superseded 
by a new method, which he was then perfecting, and as 
soon as he had developed it sufficiently he should be glad 
to close with their offers. Can we wonder that his neigh- 
bors thought him mad ? 

It was just after declining the French proposal that he 
endured his worst extremity of want and humiliation. It 
was in the winter of 1839-40; one of those long and 
terrible snowstorms for which New England is noted, had 
been raging for many hours, and he awoke one morning 
to find his little cottage half buried in snow, the storm 
still continuing, and in his house not an atom of fuel nor 
a morsel of food. His children were very young, and he 
was himself sick and feeble. The charity of his neighbors 
was exhausted, and he had not the courage to face their 
reproaches. As he looked out of the window upon the 
dreary and tumultuous scene, — " fit emblem of his condi- 
tion," he remarks, — he called to mind that a few days 
before, an acquaintance, a mere acquaintance, who lived 
some miles off, had given him upon the road a more 
friendly greeting than he was then accustomed to receive. 
It had cheered his heart as he trudged sadly by, and 



2Q2 STORIES OF INVENTION. 

it now returned vividly to his mind. To this gentleman 
he determined to apply for relief, if he could reach his 
house. Terrible was his struggle with the wind and the 
deep drifts. Often he was ready to faint with fatigue, 
sickness, and hunger, and he would be obliged to sit 
down upon a bank of snow to rest. He reached the 
house and told his story, not omitting the oft-told tale 
of his new discovery, — that mine of wealth, if only he 
could procure the means of working it. The eager elo- 
quence of the inventor was seconded by the gaunt and 
yellow face of the man. His generous acquaintance en- 
tertained him cordially, and lent him a sum of money, 
which not only carried his family through the worst of 
the winter, but enabled him to continue his experiments on 
a small scale. O. B. Cooiidge, of Woburn, was the name 
of this benefactor. 

On another occasion, when he was in the most urgent 
need of materials, he looked about his house to see 
if there was left one relic of better days upon which 
a little money could be borrowed. There was nothing 
but his children's school-books, — the last things from 
which a New Englander is willing to part. There was no 
other resource. He gathered them up, and sold them 
for five dollars, with which he laid in a fresh stock of gum 
and sulphur, and kept on experimenting. 

Alice and Hester looked over the rest of the story 
while the others packed up the wrecks of the picnic and 
prepared to go down the hill. Then they joined Uncle 
Fritz in the advance, and thanked him very seriously for 
what he had shown them. 

"Such a story as that," said Hester, "is worth more 
than anything about cut-offs or valves." 



BEARING TEST. 293 

" I think so too," said he. 

" I should like," said the girl, " to write to those chil- 
dren of his a letter to thank them for what they have 
done, and what he did for me, and a million girls like 
me." 

"It would be a good thing to do," said he, "and 
I think I can put you in the way." 

"And I do hope," said Alice, eagerly, "that if we are 
ever tested in that way we shall bear the test." 

"Dear Uncle Fritz, if we cannot invent a flying- 
machine, and have not learned how to close up rivets this 
winter, we have learned at least how to bear each other's 
burdens." 



INDEX. 



Abel, Professor 
Althorp, Lord 
Anderson . . 
Archimedes . 
Bacon, Roger 
Barlow, Joel . 
Baxter House 
Beccaria . . 
Bell, I. L. . 
Benvenuto Cellini 
Bernard Palissy 
Berthier . . 
Berzelius . . 
Bessemer, Andrew 
Bessemer, Sir Henry 
Bessemer and Catherwood 
Black, Dr. 
Blue Hills, Mass. 
Bossuet . . . 
Boulton, Matthew 
Bourbon, Constable 
Braithwaite and Ericsson 
Brandreth . . . 
Bridgewater Foundry 
Brunei, Isambert 
Bungy, Friar . . 
Burstall . . . 
Carriage, Sailing 
Car of Neptune . 
Caslon, Henry . 
Cellini, Benvenuto 
Chaise, One-wheeled 



PAGE 

275, 278 
. 268 
. 246 
18,20 
• 37 
. 179 
. 277 
. 114 
. 280 



82 
281 
281 
262 
259 
263 
165 
284 

183 
, 181 

63 
212 



249, 255 



• 4i 

212, 216 

. 141 



263 
58 
144 



PAGE 

Charles IX. of France . . 96 

Cheltenham 281 

Church, Benjamin . . . . 174 

Circle, The Square of . . . 22 

Clement VII 62 

Condensation 159 

Conductors of Electricity . . 105 

Constable Bourbon, shot . . 63 

Coolidge, O. B 292 

Court of Chancery, N. Y. . 189 

Dalibard 108 

Darwin, Dr 135 

Dawson, President .... 286 

De Foe, Daniel 99 

Devonport ...... 252 

Didot, Firmin 263 

Dixon, John 205 

Droz, Frangois Xavier Joseph 102 

Edgeworth, Richard Lovell . 119 

Edison's Laboratory ... 51 

Electricity 103 

Elkingtons 263 

Engines, Early Steam . . . 149 

Euclid . 20 

Evans, Oliver 175 

Experiment, The Great . . in 

Field, Joshua ..... 249 

Fitch, John .... 177, 190 

"Firework," The . . . . 155 

Francis L 71 

Franklin, Benjamin 97, 177, 237 

Fulton, Robert 173 



296 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Gig, One-wheeled .... 145 
Glasses, Musical . . .115-117 

Gold Paint 270 

Goodyear, Charles .... 285 
Greene, Mrs. General . . 227, 229 

Griiner 279 

Gun Factories 275 

Hackworth, Timothy . . . 212 

Hammerfield 257 

Harmonica 113 

Hart's Recollections . . . 161 
Hartop, Annie (Mrs. Bessemer) 250 

Helton Railway 203 

Hiero 21 

Hitchin 264 

Hooke, Dr. Robert .... 137 

Hulls, Jonathan 176 

Jack the Darter 142 

Jay, John 220 

Jefferson, Thomas .... 233 

JoufTroy, Marquis de ... 176 

Karsten 281 

Keramics 82 

Killingworth Colliery ... 195 

Latent Heat 157 

Lightning 107 

Livingston, Chancellor . . 17S 

Mackintosh, James .... 173 

Maclaughlan, Robert . . . 246 

Manchester 249 

Marcellus attacks Syracuse . 26 
Massachusetts, Derivation of 

Name 284 

Maudsley, Henry .... 247 

Middleton Colliery Railway . 203 

Miller, Phineas 231 

Minie, Commander .... 273 

Musical Glasses 115 

Napoleon 1 175 

Napoleon III 274 

Nasmyth, James .... 23S 
Newcomen Engine . 150,167,169 



Nuremburg . . . 
Palissy the Potter . 
Papin, Denis . . . 
Patricroft .... 

Perier 

Persley, Sir Charles 
Plombieres . . . 
Pope Clement VII. 
Potter, Humphrey . 
Practical Magazine . 

Ouincy 

Rastrick and Walker 
Ravensworth, Lord 
Renard and Krebs . 
Resolution Book 
Rinman .... 
Robespierre, Max. . 
Robison .... 
Roebuck, Dr. . . 
Roger Bacon . . . 
Roosevelt, Nicholas 
Royal Academy . . 
Royal Gun Factories 
Rumsey, James . . 
St. Pancras . . . 
St. Petersburg . . 

Savery 

Scottish Society of Arts 
Sharp Conductors . 
Somerset House 
Sounds and Signals 
Stanhope, Earl . . 
Stamp Office, English 
Steam-Engines, Early 
Stephenson, George 
Stephenson, Robert 
Stevens, John 
Stevens, Robert L. 
Sweden . . . 
Symingtoa . . . 
Syracuse, Siege of 
Telegraph, Edgeworth 



INDEX. 



297 



Telegraph, English 
Telegraph, Irish . 
Telegraph, Home 
Telegraphs . . 
Tellograph . . 
Thirteen Virtues 
Travelling Engine 
Ugolini, Giorgio 
Virgil .... 
Walker and Rastrick 



PAGE 

133 
127 

139 
,126 

*37 
100 

'95 

65 
53 
217 



PAGE 

Walking-machine .... 140 

Watt, James 146 

Whistler, Major G. W. . . 254 

Whitney, Eli 219 

Wilmot, Col. Eardley . . . 275 

Wood, Nicholas 213 

Woolwich Arsenal . . . . 275 
Wylam and Killingvvorth Rail- 
way 203 

Zonara 32 



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